FUEL CELL BASED POWERTRAIN SIMULATIONS TO FIND THE POWER SPLITTING LEADING TO IMPROVED CHARACTERISTICS

Mariana Iliescu*, Mircea Raceanu, Mihai Culcer, Adrian Enache, Mihai Varlam

National Research and Development Institute for Cryogenics and Isotopic Technologies - ICSI Rm. Valcea, Uzinei Street no. 4, PO Box Râureni 7, 240050, Râmnicu Vâlcea, Romania

ABSTRACT

The paper deals with a hybrid electric fuel cell based powertrain design, dedicated to alleviate the main drawbacks of the electric vehicle: the reduced driving autonomy and the high charging time.

The proposed hybrid electric powertrain topology includes an energy source based on Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) and an energy storage system based on a Li-ion rechargeable battery and an ultra- capacitor.

In order to achieve the best power splitting between the energy source and the energy storage units, leading to improved electric vehicle characteristics in terms of autonomy, hydrogen consumption and efficiency, system modeling and simulation was used in the first stage.

Two control strategies for power management were implemented, namely state machine (SM) and proportional- integral (PI), and a comparison of the results is presented.

Keywords: hybrid- electric powertrain, PEM fuel cell, battery, ultra- capacitor, power splitting, power management.