Energy Management Strategy for Hydrogen Fuel Cell Tractors Integrating Online Dynamic Response Capability

Hydrogen fuel cell tractors (HFCTs) represent a critical frontier in the development of modern green agricultural equipment. Due to the heavy-duty and highly variable nature of tractor operations, current fuel cell-powered platforms face significant challenges, including insufficient energy sustainability and low-efficiency consumption. This study addresses the issues of sluggish dynamic response and durability degradation during complex plowing tasks through systematic power system modeling and energy management strategy (EMS) research. First, a control-oriented fuel cell model coupling mechanical inertia, manifold filling-and-emptying dynamics, and electrochemical reactions is established, which quantitatively reveals the physical boundaries of load-change ramp rates. On this basis, a multi-dimensional performance evaluation framework for HFCTs is constructed. This framework innovatively proposes fuel cell dynamic response indicators and a non-linear calculation model for continuous operational duration, achieving a non-linear mapping between onboard energy storage capacity and operating time for quantitative endurance assessment. Subsequently, guided by this evaluation system, a dynamic program considering the coordination of energy system durability and the energy consumption economy (DP-CoDE) is developed. By establishing an online update mechanism for power-change rates, synergistic optimization of system durability and economy is achieved based on the DP-CoDE strategy. Model-in-the-loop simulation results under plowing conditions demonstrate that, compared to the DP-CoDE strategy, the proposed strategy enhances response stability by 44.44% and reduces response tracking error by 41.17% at a marginal cost of only a 0.15% increase in total hydrogen consumption. These findings significantly improve the system’s tracking capability under transient complex loads and provide a robust theoretical foundation for the control system design of HFCTs.