Abstract: Temperature in the stack plays an important role in ensuring efficient and reliable operations for proton exchange membrane fuel cells driving locomotive which is a new field in railway development. The thermal model of fuel cells for locomotive was built including the stack, bypass, radiator and their resistance to coolant. The control objective that the temperature at inlet of the stack maintained at a setting temperature with the temperature difference between the stack less 10^oC was accomplished by adjusting the air flow rate through the radiator and the coolant flow rate through the pump; and the two controllers including PI controller and the state feedback controllers with integral were designed. The simulations show not only that these two controllers can satisfy the objective with the temperature error less 0.1^oC, but also the performance of the latter is better for its involving coupling relation between input signals and output signals.

Key words: fuel cells, stack temperature, resistance model, state feedback control with integral