Evaluation of Fixed-Step Differential Equations Solution Methods for Fuel Cell Real-Time Simulation

In this paper, the need of having real-time emulators for Fuel Cells systems is described. Euler and Runge-Kutta numerical methods for Real-Time differential equations solution are presented. The performance of these methods is evaluated in the fixed step simulation of the air supply system and stack in Fuel Cell systems, looking for a system that allows to predict and emulate the Fuel Cell behavior. Finally, computational loads of the selected numerical methods are evaluated using different systems: MATLAB Real-Time Windows Target Toolbox, free-cost RTAI-Linux Target, dSpacecopy enterprice PowerPC target and a TMS320C6711 DSP Embedded System.