Fuel Cell Thermal Management: Modeling, Specifications, and Correct-by-Construction Control Synthesis

Abstract

The safe and efficient operation of fuel cells requires thermal management. The goal of this paper is to algorithmically synthesize a provably correct controller for a fuel cell thermal management system. We begin by developing a control-oriented model for the thermal management system of a fuel cell stack. Then, we list the requirements associated with thermal management and formalize them using linear temporal logic. The model and the requirements are then used for controller synthesis with an abstraction-based technique. To make the abstraction-based synthesis algorithm computationally efficient, some structural properties of the fuel cell system dynamics are identified and leveraged. Finally, the closed-loop system behavior with the synthesized controller is demonstrated via simulations.