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Virginia Tech

The Integration of State Space into the Dynamic Synthesis/Design and Operational/Control Optimization of a PEMFC System

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

A typical approach to the synthesis/design optimization of energy systems is to only use steady state operation and high efficiency (or low total life cycle cost) at full load as the basis for the synthesis/design. Transient operation is a secondary task to be solved by system and control engineers once the synthesis/design is fixed. This thesis considers the system dynamics in the process of developing the system using a set of transient thermodynamic, kinetic, and geometric as well as physical and cost models developed and implemented for the components of a 5 kW PEMFC (Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell) system. The system is composed of three subsystems: a stack subsystem (SS), a fuel processing subsystem (FPS), and a work recovery and air supply subsystem (WRAS). To study the effect of control to the optimization, State Space control design is used in a looped set of optimizations. These results are compared to those resulting from a more direct optimization of the controller designs in which the gains for the controllers are part of the decision variable set for the overall optimization. Then, dynamic optimization results are obtained and compared with steady-state optimization results to illustrate the advantages of dynamic optimization. Also, a multi-level optimization technique, dynamic iterative local-global optimization (DILGO), is utilized for the optimization of the PEMFC system by separating the system into three subsystems and the results are compared with the single level optimization results, in which the whole system is optimized together.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Ph. D.
Level thesis:degree_level
doctoral
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Mechanical Engineering
Department dc:contributor.department
Mechanical Engineering
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2008

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Wang, Meng
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • von Spakovsky, Michael R.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Ellis, Michael W.
  • Johnson, Martin E.
  • Rancruel, Diego
  • Nelson, Douglas J.

Subjects

dc:subject × 7

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
etd-02042008-140129
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/26114

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Wang, Meng. The Integration of State Space into the Dynamic Synthesis/Design and Operational/Control Optimization of a PEMFC System. doctoral thesis, Virginia Tech, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/26114