Volume 68

Lifecycle Optimization Method for Multi-Stack SOFC Systems Based on Power Equivalence and Approximate Dynamic Programming Bingqi Shang, Shijun Wu, Zichen Wang, Haojie Xie, Yuyang Liu, Xinchang Zhou, Jianhua Jiang

Abstract

Multi-stack solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC)systems suffer from issues such as state of health (SOH) heterogeneity, migration of optimal power regions caused by degradation, and high computational complexity in high?dimensional optimization during long-term operation. Based on the power evolution characteristics of a single stack under varying SOH, this paper proposes the concept of power equivalence and establishes its
quantitative model. Within the framework of approximate dynamic programming (ADP), the power
equivalence factor is employed as a state aggregation operator to map the high-dimensional SOH space to low?dimensional reference states, thereby reducing the complexity of lifecycle optimization. Meanwhile, a SOH?dependent safe power upper bound constraint is introduced to determine the feasible operating region of each stack. The above work lays a critical theoretical and methodological foundation for the further development of real-time power reconfiguration and health-aware cooperative optimal control for multi-stack SOFC systems.

Keywords Multi-stack SOFC system, State of Health, Power equivalence, Approximate dynamic programming, Multi-objective lifecycle optimization