Date of Award

7-28-2011

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Engineering

First Advisor

Michael Mann

Abstract

The aim of this work was to identify and specify the requirements of critical components of Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell systems in 2-wheeled vehicles. Specifically, mathematical simulation tools, Matlab, Simulink and ADVISOR were used to explore the viability of both a smaller than 10kW fuel cell and smaller than 10kW hybrid fuel cell scooter. Hydrogen, air, and water consumption as well as heat management were monitored under varying conditions in simulations. Efficiency of the overall system was found to be approximately 50% and highly dependent on the fuel cell auxiliary power source. Due to the existing fuel converter models being unsuitable for simulating a two-wheeler vehicle sized fuel cell, a new model was developed that would more closely resemble the behavior of such a powerplant. This took the form of a fuel cell model that combined an external theoretical and semi empirical fuel cell model presented in Springer with the existing ADVISOR polarization curve fuel cell model. Integrating the separate fuel cell model into ADVISOR required a new fuel converter component model.

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