| Rechargeable batteries such as lithium-ion cells are playing an increasingly significant role in the utilization of portable electronic devices such as portable computers, cellular phones and camcorders. However, their advantages are partially restricted by the limited usable time. A fuel cell power battery-charging station provides a good solution for recharging these batteries in the fieldwork. This dissertation presents the work on the design, development, validation and implementation of a fuel cell power battery-charging station. The methodology used here is a five-stage research approach: conceptual design, detailed system analysis and design, software validation, hardware validation, and hardware implementation.; An effective power processing circuit for the fuel cell powered battery-charging station is designed. Various possible control strategies (including static and real-time control strategies) for active power sharing in the fuel cell powered battery-charging station are discovered in order to minimize the total charging time. A simple method is proposed to estimate the state-of-charge of the battery by estimating the battery open-circuit voltage with current correction and linearly fitting between the open-circuit voltage and the state-of-charge of the battery. These control strategies are then implemented with appropriate approaches in MATLAB/Simulink®. The performances of the various available control strategies are investigated and compared by conducting simulation studies and experiment tests. Experiment data validate the simulation results. Simulation and experiment results also show that the proposed state-of-charge estimation method is effective for the active power sharing strategies.; Synergetic control theory is applied to synthesize the controller for buck converters to regulate the pulse current charging of the batteries. This method is completely analytical and uses the full non-linear model of the converter. In comparison to available proportional-integral (PI) controller, the synergetic controller provides better dynamic characteristics due to its great suppression to the input disturbance and fast response to the output change. The applicability of this control methodology to regulating pulse current output of the buck converter is verified through simulation and experiment.; The metal-hydride hydrogen storage system is characterized and modeled in the VTB. This dynamic model, validated against experiment data, is suitable for hydrogen-fueled energy system simulation. A thermally coupled metal-hydride hydrogen storage and fuel cell system is investigated. Simulation results exemplify the importance of providing energy to the metal hydride bed to facilitate the removal of hydrogen during a discharge process. |
