Vehicle including fuel cell system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9884567-B2
Application number	US-201514939598-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 12, 2015
Priority date	Nov 15, 2014
Publication date	Feb 6, 2018
Grant date	Feb 6, 2018

Abstract

In a vehicle including a fuel cell system, an electronic control unit is configured to perform first processing in which a rotation speed of an air pump is controlled based on a torque command value and a rotation speed command value, and to perform, in the first processing, at least one of second processing in which the torque command value is set to be larger than the calculated torque command value when at least one of values of an accelerator position, required electric power, and the rotation speed command value or a change rate thereof is increased by a prescribed first value or more, and third processing in which the torque command value is set to be smaller than the calculated torque command value when at least one of the values or the change rate thereof is decreased by a prescribed second value or more.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A vehicle including a fuel cell system, comprising:
a fuel cell;
an air pump that supplies an oxidant gas to the fuel cell;
an accelerator position sensor that detects an accelerator position of the vehicle; and
an electronic control unit configured to control the fuel cell system, the electronic control unit being configured to perform first processing in which required electric power is calculated from the accelerator position detected by the accelerator position sensor, a flow rate of the oxidant gas to be supplied to the fuel cell is calculated in accordance with the required electric power, a rotation speed command value for the air pump is calculated using a value of the calculated flow rate, a torque command value for the air pump is calculated using the rotation speed command value and a current rotation speed of the air pump, and the rotation speed of the air pump is controlled based on the torque command value and the rotation speed command value, and
the electronic control unit being configured to perform, in the first processing, at least one of
second processing in which the torque command value used to control the air pump is set to be larger than the calculated torque command value to control the rotation speed of the air pump when at least one of values of the accelerator position, the required electric power, and the rotation speed command value or a change rate of at least one of the values is increased by a prescribed first value or more, and
third processing in which the torque command value used to control the air pump is set to be smaller than the calculated torque command value to control the rotation speed of the air pump when at least one of the values of the accelerator position, the required electric power, and the rotation speed command value or the change rate of at least one of the values is decreased by a prescribed second value or more,

wherein the electronic control unit is configured to perform the first processing without performing the second processing when an actual rotation speed of the air pump reaches a rotation speed lower than the rotation speed command value by a prescribed first rotation speed in the second processing, and to perform the first processing without performing the third processing when the actual rotation speed of the air pump reaches a rotation speed higher than the rotation speed command value by a prescribed second rotation speed in the third processing.

2. The vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein the electronic control unit is configured to calculate an estimated value of the rotation speed command value from an amount of decrease in the accelerator position, to calculate a feed-forward value of a torque of the air pump using the estimated value, and to set a value lower than the feed-forward value as the torque command value, when the accelerator position is decreased and before the rotation speed command value for the air pump is obtained in the third processing.

3. The vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein the electronic control unit is configured to decrease a torque of the air pump by a prescribed value from a feed-forward value of the torque of the air pump in the third processing, the feed forward value being calculated based on an amount of decrease in the accelerator position.

4. The vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein the electronic control unit is configured to set a lower limit value of the torque command value in accordance with an actual rotation speed of the air pump.

5. The vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein the electronic control unit is configured to set the torque command value at zero when the accelerator position is decreased and the required electric power that is required of the fuel cell and that is calculated from the accelerator position is larger than output electric power of the fuel cell.

6. The vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein the electronic control unit is configured to perform the first processing without performing the third processing when the accelerator position is decreased and the required electric power that is required of the fuel cell and that is calculated from the accelerator position is larger than output electric power of the fuel cell.

7. The vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein:
an upper limit threshold value of the rotation speed command value is provided, the upper limit threshold value being smaller than an allowable rotation speed of the air pump; and
the electronic control unit is configured, when the rotation speed of the air pump exceeds the upper limit threshold value during the first processing, to calculate a torque coefficient based on a difference between an actual rotation speed of the air pump and the upper limit threshold value, to use the torque command value calculated in the first processing as a base torque command value, to multiply the base torque command value by the torque coefficient to calculate a new torque command value, and to control the rotation speed of the air pump based on the new torque command value and the rotation speed command value, the torque coefficient being equal to or less than 1 and becoming smaller as the difference becomes larger.

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Oda Kohei
• Umayahara Kenji
• Kakeno Yuji
• Nada Mitsuhiro

Classifications

• H01M8/0438

  Pressure; Ambient pressure; Flow · CPC title

• H01M8/04089

  of gaseous reactants · CPC title

• B60L2240/80

  Time limits · CPC title

• B60L2260/44

  by parameter estimation · CPC title

• B60L58/40

  for controlling a combination of batteries and fuel cells · CPC title