A Novel Fuel-Cell Electric Articulated Vehicle and Its Drop-and-Pull Transport System

Yanwei Liu, Zhenye Li, Yuzhong Chen and Kegang Zhao
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Yanwei Liu: School of Electromechanical Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China
Zhenye Li: School of Electromechanical Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China
Yuzhong Chen: School of Electromechanical Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China
Kegang Zhao: National Local Engineering Laboratory of Automobile Parts Technology, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 14, 1-17

Abstract: Drop-and-pull transportation can repeatedly utilize tractors with different trailers and reduce costs, carbon emissions, and the number of tractors to purchase and use. Fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEV) possess high power and long drive endurance. These performance characteristics complement the performance requirements of drop-and-pull transportation of heavy loads and long mileage. This paper proposes a novel fuel-cell electric articulated vehicle featuring three power sources: fuel cell, power battery, and ultracapacitor. Then, based on the proposed vehicle, we expound on a highly efficient and flexible transport system. To compare economics and durability of fuel-cell electric trailers with two energy sources (i.e., fuel-cell-battery) and three energy sources, we developed and simulated a rule-based energy management strategy under driving conditions. The results indicate that, although similar levels of fuel economy and capacity degradation of the fuel cell occur for the proposed vehicle and its two-energy-source counterpart, the ampere–hour throughput of three-energy-source vehicles was 64% lower than that of two-energy-source vehicles, which indicates the introduction of the ultracapacitor in fuel-cell-battery electric articulated vehicles can offer significant protection to the power battery. This result shows that the three energy sources increase the service life of the energy system.

Keywords: fuel cells; articulated vehicle; drop-and-pull transportation; energy management strategy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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