Sliding mode control applied to fuel cell, supercapacitors and batteries for vehicle hybridizations

This paper treats the design and control of two structures with hybrid sources. The first structure uses supercapacitors, fuel cell and batteries on the DC link and the second one is similar to the first but without batteries. A fuel cell, as a slowest dynamic source in these systems (due to its auxiliaries) acts to supply the permanent energy. The supercapacitors, as high dynamic and high power density devices, compensate the intrinsic limitations in embedded sources and shave transient power peaks. The batteries module, as a high energy density device, operates for supplying energy if limitations of the power and energy sources occur. The load is a single phase DC machine connected directly in the DC bus. Our interest is focused on the comparison of the two structures. Both structures are controlled using sliding mode technique. Some results are presented and discussed.