Hybrid vehicular fuel cell/battery powertrain test bench: design, construction, and performance testing

Abstract

The development of hybrid vehicular power systems has been conducted for decades to improve transportation quality mainly in terms of environment pollution and fuel economy. Hence, hybrid electric vehicular systems are considered an attractive and potential solution in the long run to replace conventional combustion engine vehicles. In this paper, a scaled-down vehicular powertrain test bench is designed and constructed utilizing a hybrid fuel cell/battery energy sources. The performance of the proposed test bench is also investigated experimentally to explore the modes of operation for system components under various road conditions. Load-following energy management strategy is implemented experimentally in this hybrid configuration. The concepts that can be learned from such test bench are certainly essential for any future implementation on real full-size vehicles. In this study, it is shown that even though fuel cells have a good energy-to-weight ratio, they have a slow response and that is why they must be combined with other fast-response energy sources like a battery or supercapacitor. The test bench is mainly built to explore the implementation of various energy management strategies and control algorithms without the need to have a real vehicle and an automotive test track. In addition, it is an excellent platform for training highly qualified automotive engineers and university undergraduate students as well as automotive researchers.