Efficiency-Enhanced Distributed Aggregated Power Management for Multi-Stack Fuel Cell Hybrid Propulsion Systems in Electric Aircraft

Aviation electrification is an inevitable trend poised to reshape the industry by providing more sustainable, cost-efficient, and environmentally friendly alternatives for air travel. As one of the most promising solutions, multi-stack fuel cell hybrid propulsion systems, where both fuel cells and battery are involved, are being widely developed in electric aircraft to accelerate this transformation. In such power systems, power management is imperative to ensure efficient and reliable operation. To avoid dependency on the central controller and save computational resources, a distributed aggregated power management strategy is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the droop-based inertia emulation is implemented in the battery unit to handle dynamic load power, suppressing the fuel cell power variation. In multi-stack fuel cells, an aggregated model based on a dynamic consensus algorithm is established to estimate load power demand, adaptively generating the power reference for each fuel cell. This method ensures that fuel cells operate within their high-efficiency range as much as possible, while the battery only discharges or charges when necessary. Eventually, the lifespan degradation of the studied power system is delayed and the equivalent hydrogen consumption is saved. Finally, the effectiveness of this method is demonstrated by simulation and hardware-in-loop test results based on flight missions.