This work presents a systematic approach to the multivariable robust control of a hybrid fuel cell gas turbine plant. The hybrid configuration under investigation built by the National Energy Technology Laboratory comprises a physical simulation of a 300kW fuel cell coupled to a 120kW auxiliary power unit single spool gas turbine. The public facility provides for the testing and simulation of different fuel cell models that in turn help identify the key difficulties encountered in the transient operation of such systems. An empirical model of the built facility comprising a simulated fuel cell cathode volume and balance of plant components is derived via frequency response data. Through the modulation of various airflow bypass valves within the hybrid configuration, Bode plots are used to derive key input/output interactions in transfer function format. A multivariate system is then built from individual transfer functions, creating a matrix that serves as the nominal plant in an H ∞ robust control algorithm. The controller's main objective is to track and maintain hybrid operational constraints in the fuel cell's cathode airflow, and the turbo machinery states of temperature and speed, under transient disturbances. This algorithm is then tested on a Simulink/MatLab platform for various perturbations of load and fuel cell heat effluence. As a complementary tool to the aforementioned empirical plant, a nonlinear analytical model faithful to the existing process and instrumentation arrangement is evaluated and designed in the Simulink environment. This parallel task intends to serve as a building block to scalable hybrid configurations that might require a more detailed nonlinear representation for a wide variety of controller schemes and hardware implementations. iii Pray, hope, and don't worry. Do not worry over things that generate anxiety. Only one thing is necessary, to lift up your spirit and love God.
This paper compares and demonstrates the efficacy of implementing two practical single input single output multiloop control schemes on the dynamic performance of selected signals of a solid oxide fuel cell gas turbine (SOFC-GT) hybrid simulation facility. The hybrid plant located at the U.S. Department of Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory in Morgantown, WV is capable of simulating the interaction between a 350 kW solid oxide fuel cell and a 120 kW gas turbine using a hardware in the loop configuration. Previous studies have shown that the thermal management of coal based SOFC-GT hybrid systems is accomplished by the careful control of the cathode air stream within the fuel cell (FC). Decoupled centralized and dynamic decentralized control schemes are tested for one critical airflow bypass loop to regulate cathode FC airflow and modulation of turbine electric load to maintain synchronous turbine speed during system transients. Improvements to the studied multivariate architectures include: feed-forward control for disturbance rejection, antiwindup compensation for actuator saturation, gain scheduling for adaptive operation, bumpless transfer for manual to auto switching, and adequate filter design for the inclusion of derivative action. Controller gain tuning is accomplished by Skogestad’s internal model control tuning rules derived from empirical first order plus delay time transfer function models of the hybrid facility. Avoidance of strong input-output coupling interactions is achieved via relative gain array, Niederlinski index, and decomposed relative interaction analysis, following recent methodologies in proportional integral derivative control theory for multivariable processes.
This paper presents the study of the effect variations in the heat effluence from a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) has on a gas turbine hybrid configuration. The SOFC is simulated through hardware at the U.S. Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). The gas turbine, compressor, recuperative heat exchanger, and other balance of plant components are represented by actual hardware in the Hybrid Performance Test Facility at NETL. Fuel cell heat exhaust is represented by a combustor that is activated by a fuel cell model that computes energy release for various sensed system states System structure is derived by means of frequency response data generated by the sinusoidal oscillation of the combustor fuel valve over a range of frequencies covering three orders of magnitude. System delay and order are obtained from Bode plots of the magnitude and phase relationships between input and output parameters. Transfer functions for mass flow, temperature, pressure, and other states of interest are derived as a function of fuel valve flow, representative of fuel cell thermal effluent. The Bode plots can validate existing analytical transfer functions, provide steady state error detection, give a stability margin criterion for the fuel valve input, estimate system bandwidth, identify any nonminimum phase system behavior, pinpoint unstable frequencies, and serve as an element of a piecewise transfer function in the development of an overall transfer function matrix covering all system inputs and outputs of interest. Further loop shaping techniques and state space representation can be applied to this matrix in a multivariate control algorithm.
This paper presents a systematic approach to the multivariable robust control of a hybrid fuel cell gas turbine plant. The hybrid configuration under investigation comprises a physical simulation of a 300 kW fuel cell coupled to a 120 kW auxiliary power unit single spool gas turbine. The facility provides for the testing and simulation of different fuel cell models that in turn help identify the key issues encountered in the transient operation of such systems. An empirical model of the facility consisting of a simulated fuel cell cathode volume and balance of plant components is derived via frequency response data. Through the modulation of various airflow bypass valves within the hybrid configuration, Bode plots are used to derive key input/output interactions in transfer function format. A multivariate system is then built from individual transfer functions, creating a matrix that serves as the nominal plant in an H-infinity robust control algorithm. The controller’s main objective is to track and maintain hybrid operational constraints in the fuel cell’s cathode airflow and the turbo machinery states of temperature and speed under transient disturbances. This algorithm is then tested on a SIMULINK/MATLAB platform for various perturbations of load and fuel cell heat effluence.
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