Analysis and Sizing of Power Distribution Architectures Applied to Fuel Cell Based Vehicles

Abstract

The fuel cell based vehicles powertrain is an extensive system that comprises a fuel cell (FC) as the primary energy source, a set of power converters both unidirectional and bidirectional and batteries or supercapacitors as secondary energy sources. Its design is a complex task that affects the mass, volume, cost, efficiency and fuel economy of the vehicle. This paper describes a graphic and straightforward sizing of the secondary energy sources needed to fulfil the vehicle load requirements, as well as the set of equations related to the mass, cost and volume of each one of the power distribution subsystems. Moreover, this paper analysis ten different power distribution architectures to conclude which is the most suitable secondary energy source, the minimum sizing, cost, volume and weight, depending on the amount of power delivered by the fuel cell. Also, a 1.6 kW fuel cell based architecture is implemented and testing. The experimental results confirm the proposed methodology.