An Evaluation Study of Current and Future Fuel Cell Hybrid Electric Vehicles Powertrains

The powertrain control strategy and component sizing can significantly influence the vehicle performance, cost and fuel economy. This paper presents an evaluation study of the current and future Fuel Cell Hybrid Vehicles (FCHEVs) powertrains from the point of view of the fuel economy, volume, mass and cost. In this research, different FCHEV powertrains (such as Fuel Cell/Supercapacitor (FC/SC), Fuel Cell/Battery (FC/B), and FC/SC/B) and different control strategies are designed and simulated by using Matlab/Simulink. In this paper, two standard driving cycles (NEDC and FTP75) are used to evaluate the fuel consumption. Within this study, two control strategies based on the knowledge of the fuel cell efficiency map are implemented to minimize the hydrogen consumption of the FCHEV powertrains. These control strategies are control strategy based on Efficiency Map (CSEM) and control strategy based on Particle Swarm Optimization (CSPSO). Furthermore, a comparative study of different FCHEV powertrains is provided for adequately selecting of the proper FCHEV powertrain, which could be used in industrial applications.