Cost Minimization Strategy for Fuel Cell Hybrid Electric Vehicles Considering Power Sources Degradation

The low durability and high cost of fuel cells and batteries are the main barriers of widely commercial usage of fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles. Energy management is one of the effective methods to increase the durability of power sources and the overall economy of the vehicle. The majority of existing studies focus only on fuel consumption. Therefore, an online applicable cost minimization strategy cooperating fuel cell and battery degradation is proposed to decrease the overall operating cost including hydrogen consumption cost and lifetime costs of fuel cell and battery. Two kinds of degradation models are both designed for fuel cell and battery respectively. Empirical degradation model and prognostic model are used to calculate the degradation cost and estimate the degradation performances of power sources along with aging. Creatively cooperating two kinds of models to precisely quantify the degradation rates of power sources under real automobile operating conditions is firstly studied. Validation under a typical driving cycle shows the effectiveness of the developed cost minimization strategy in increasing the economy of the vehicle. The effects of degradation and failure states of power sources, driving cycles and price evolution of hydrogen and power sources on the optimal cost results are also analyzed.