Motor vehicle drive unit including a fuel cell and an energy storage system

An automotive vehicle drive unit, comprising:

• a fuel cell comprising a flat non-linear control whose control input Pfc* is a setpoint of the electrical power to be delivered by the fuel cell;
• a reversible electrical energy storage system;
• an electric motor configured to propel the wheels of a vehicle;
• an electrical connection element configured to selectively connect the fuel cell and/or the energy storage system to the electric motor;
• a control circuit:
• storing a model of the consumption of dihydrogen of the fuel cell as a function of the electrical power delivered by this fuel cell, in the form of a second-degree polynomial
• g(Pfc*)=a*Pfc*2 +b*Pfc*+c, with a, b and c being constants;
• configured to compute a coefficient of power distribution λ1 between the fuel cell and the electrical energy storage system
• λ
• 1
• =
• 2
• ⁢
• a
• ⁡
• (
• Δ
• ⁢
• ⁢
• SoE
• ·
• ɛ
• ma
• ⁢
• ⁢
• x
• Δ
• ⁢
• ⁢
• t
• -
• ∑
• j
• =
• t
• t
• +
• T
• h
• ⁢
• P
• bus
• ⁢
• (
• j
• )
• )
• (
• T
• h
• Δ
• ⁢
• ⁢
• t
• )
• +
• b
• with ΔSoE the difference between a target quantity of energy in the storage system and the current quantity of energy of the storage system expressed as a percentage, Pbus(j) are measurement values of electrical power exchanged between the electric motor and the electrical connection element, Δt is a time interval separating two successive measurements of Pbus(j), Th is the electric motor's duration of operation taken into account for the computation of λ1, εmax is the maximum quantity of energy that can be stored in the electrical energy storage system;
• configured to apply the power setpoint Pfc* to the flat non-linear control of the fuel cell, with Pfc*=(λ1−b)/(2a);
• configured to control the electrical connection element so as to recharge the electrical energy storage system when the value of the power setpoint Pfc* is greater than the power demanded by the electric motor.