Development and evaluation of an integrated solid oxide fuel cell system for medium airplanes

The three-dimensional non-isothermal model of anode-supported planar solid oxide fuel cell was established. In order to reduce the temperature rise of SOFC in the process of operation and improve the output performance of the stack, this paper studied and compared the operation of SOFC in four different flow modes. The study found that the flow mode has a great influence on the temperature distribution of the SOFC stack. In co-flow, the temperature increases continuously along the channel length. In the case that oxygen and hydrogen of each cell are in co-flow, by reversing the flow direction between adjacent cells, the temperature rise of the SOFC stack along the channel direction can be reduced by 26 K, which decreases from 41.2 K to about 15 K. At the same time, the output current density and power density of the SOFC stack are also improved to some extent.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of flow modes on operation characteristics of three‐dimensional non‐isothermal solid oxide fuel cell stack

Fan

Ye²,

Qiu-feng³

et al. 2021

“…Recently, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAVs) have been used for a variety of applications, including videography and photography, surveying and mapping, agriculture, payload carrying, and military missions 1 . UAV's propulsion system is one of its main components that if the use of a powerful and efficient system can increase the capabilities of the UAV 2 . The available UAVs are mostly based on battery, internal combustion engines, or gas turbines‐powered energy systems 3,4 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In general, it had been shown that UAV's performance depends on temperature changes 44 . Alizade Evrin and Dincer 2 evaluated the thermodynamic analysis of a SOFC‐based integrated powering system for a medium‐sized airplane. They found that the energy and exergy efficiencies of the integrated system were nearly 57.5% and 47.2%.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment and conceptual design of a SOFC / TIG / TEG ‐based hybrid propulsion system for a small UAV

Ren

2022

Summary Improving the electricity output of a propulsion configuration of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can be effective in achieving the targets of controlling fuel consumption and high flight endurance. Recently, fuel cell‐powered UAVs have been developed to achieve these goals. In addition, the use of an integrated fuel cell‐based electric propulsion system can further improve power generation rate. On the other hand, due to the limited reports on fuel cell‐powered UAVs (especially solid oxide fuel cell [SOFC]), it is necessary to conduct more and detailed studies. In this regard, the present article provides a conceptual analysis of a SOFC/thermionic generator (TIG)/thermoelectric generator (TEG) integrated propulsion configuration to produce electric energy of a small UAV. SOFC stack converts chemical energy into electric current and thermal energy. The thermal energy of the stack's exhaust is converted into electric power under two processes in downstream generators. The objective of this work is to calculate the needful power of an UAV at desired mission requirements. The present study presents a new propulsion configuration. In addition, the proposed system's design and modeling as well as provided results are in such a way that the propulsion system can be generalized for any desired size of UAV. The finding revealed that the introduced propulsion configuration could produce nearly 553.7 W of electricity. Moreover, the efficiency of electricity production was close to 49.3%. It was also found that the drone requires nearly 1.3 kW of electric power to perform the intended mission. According to the conceptual evaluation of the proposed propulsion configuration, five scenarios are also suggested to provide the necessary power to the UAV.

“…1 The UAV can be described as an aircraft without a pilot onboard. 2,3 The basic factors in designing a UAV are its power supply, long endurance mission, and weight of the UAV. So far, various UAVs with different types of fuel and endurance mission have been designed around the world, but their specifications are not available due to military purposes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most recently, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been used for military purposes, delivering postal packages, environmental monitoring, disaster relief, etc 1 . The UAV can be described as an aircraft without a pilot onboard 2,3 . The basic factors in designing a UAV are its power supply, long endurance mission, and weight of the UAV.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance evaluation of two proton exchange membrane and alkaline fuel cells for use inUAVsby investigating the effect of operating altitude

Rostami¹,

Manshadi²,

Afshari

2021

Summary Fuel cells today have a variety of applications, such as fueling vehicles, which lead to a reduction in conventional fuel consumption and environmental pollution. On the other hand, in the present era, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is known as one of the most important unmanned systems for delivering postal packages, environmental monitoring, disaster relief, and military target. However, the performance of fuel cells is affected by their operating pressure and temperature. In addition, due to some political and technical considerations, the performance of these systems (especially UAV based on fuel cells) is very rare in the literature. The present work provides a conceptual design of UAV propulsion system based on a fuel cell system and a battery. The performance of two different fuel cells, namely the alkaline fuel cell (AFC) and proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), is examined separately and compared. Mission and constraint analyses of the system, as well as weight distribution of UAV, are provided. Furthermore, the performance of the UAV propulsion system in different flight modes and the performance of fuel cells under atmospheric conditions are discussed. It should be noted that reference UAV data are used for input parameters. It was found that the total power required by the UAV to carry out the mission is equal to 1253.7 W, which the share of takeoff, climb, cruise, and maximum speed flight modes were 321.3, 608.5, 118.3, and 205.6 W, respectively. Furthermore, the UAV under study, in this paper, has flight endurance of about 7.4 hours. Also, the required area of the PEMFC and AFC to supply the UAV power under the study conditions is about 0.03 and 0.6 m2, respectively. Finally, it observed that with increasing altitude (in the absence of a heating system) the performance of both fuel cells is greatly reduced.