Design of LQR Controller for Thermal Management System of 5kW Solid Oxide Fuel Cell

Solid oxide fuel cell operate at high temperature (). High temperature have an advantage of system efficiency, but a weak durability. In this study, linear state space controller is designed to handle the temperature of solid oxide fuel cell system for proper thermal management. System model is developed under simulink environment with Thermolib. Since the thermally optimal system integration improves efficiency, very complicated thermal integration approach is selected for system integration. It shows that temperature response of fuel cell stack and catalytic burner are operated at severe non-linearity. To control non-linear temperature response of SOFC system, gain scheduled linear quadratic regulator is designed. Results shows that the temperature response of stack and catalytic burner follows the command over whole ranges of operations.