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The goal of the investigation is the evaluation of the environmental impact of hybrid and electric mobility in Lecce, a city of about 100,000 inhabitants in southern Italy. The investigation starts from the definition of specific driving cycles for the University campus and Lecce city center under different conditions of traffic and weather. The data acquired in this way are used to evaluate the performance of four typologies of vehicles: a gasoline city car (Smart Fortwo), the corresponding electric version (Smart ED), three range extenders and a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle operating with blended discharge. The simulation of the different power trains is performed with AVL-Cruise and validate through comparison with literature results on the European driving cycle.

This investigation describes the dynamic modeling of a PEM (Polymer Electrolyte Membrane) fuel cell applied to a commercial 1kW dead end anode configuration. The system is tested and validated through some initial experiments. The model allows the characterization of the polarization curve, the evaluation of cell performance in terms of efficiency and consumption and the estimation of water production. To this purpose, an experimental set-up has been created using an electronic DC load (connected to a computer by RS232 serial communication) and an NI DAQ CompactRio evaluation board. The target is studying and testing solutions to improve performance, in particular with reference to hydrogen recovery solution from the purge valve. The fuel cell model has been interfaced with a 3D race simulator that is able to reproduce the environment of the competition and the specification of the vehicle.

This investigation analyzes the feasibility of using a traffic simulator, and in particular the open source software SUMO (Simulation of Urban Mobility) to reproduce speed profiles acquired under Real Driving Emission (RDE) tests. The first step of the investigation describes the experimental tests performed in Lecce to obtain RDE cycles with a Class3b vehicle. Several tests are executed with the same vehicle over the same route with the same driver. The plots of Relative Positive Acceleration versus vehicle obtained in these tests are used to tune and validate SUMO together with the qualitative speed time histories and emissions of carbon dioxide. The experimental tests also revealed the possibility to correlate CO2 emissions with either the specification of the cycle (speed and acceleration of the vehicle) or the engine working points (load and speed).