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The proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) system has emerged as the state-of-art power source for the electric vehicle, but the widespread commercial application of fuel cell vehicle is restricted by its short service life. An enabling high accuracy model holds the key for better understanding, simulation, analysis, subsystem control of the fuel cell system to extract full power and prolong the lifespan. In this paper, a quasi-dynamic lumped parameters model for a 3kW stack is introduced, which includes filling-and-emptying volume sub-models for the relationships between periphery signals and internal states, static water transferring sub-model for the membrane, and empirical electrochemical sub-model for the voltage response. Several dynamic experiments are carried out to identify unknown parameters of the model.

Parallel-connected modules have been widely used in battery packs for electric vehicles nowadays. Unlike series-connected modules, the direct state inconsistency caused by parameter inconsistency in parallel modules is current and temperature non-uniformity, thus resulting in the inconsistency in the speed of aging among cells. Consequently, the evolution pattern of parameter inconsistency is different from that of series-connected modules. Since it’s practically impossible to monitor each cell’s current and temperature information in battery packs, considering cost and energy efficiency, it’s necessary to study how the parameter inconsistency evolves in parallel modules considering the initial parameter distribution, topology design and working condition. In this study, we assigned cells of 18650 format into several groups regarding the degree of capacity and resistance inconsistency. Then all groups are cycled under different environmental temperature and current profile.

For a practical pad design, a magnetic shielding layer is imperative which is made of ferrite, aluminum or some other metallic material. However, once the magnetic shielding layer is added, not only the mutual inductance but also the self-inductance of the coupling coils vary with the lateral misalignment which is inevitable for a human driver. The change of self-inductance will also result in the mistuning problem in the resonant circuit, which can significantly reduce the transmission efficiency of the whole wireless power transfer (WPT) system. This paper proposed a method of parameter identification of self-inductance based on the least square in order to solve the mistuning problem. In order to verify the proposed method, both the simulation model and the experiment set-up are built.

The temperature of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is the key factor restricting fuel cell’s performance. A deep understanding of temperature on stack voltage consistency and transient characteristics is necessary for improving the output performance of fuel cell. In this paper, the variation trend of consistency and transient characteristics of 20kW PEMFC stack at different temperatures is studied by experiment. In consistency, the amplitude of voltage changes and voltage difference (voltage coefficient variation σV) under different thermal loading conditions is examined. In transient characteristics, discussing the trends of transient voltage at different thermal loading. As the result, once the stack temperature increases from 65 °C to 70 °C, the stack performance and dynamic response are significantly improved, which may be caused by the rise in temperature promoting the establishment of the internal quality transmission channel.

Lithium-ion battery charging strategy affects charging time of electric vehicles, energy efficiency of entire vehicle, service life and safety. This paper focuses on the lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) battery, based on the battery internal mechanism and the working conditions, taking charging time, effective full-charge capacity and charge energy efficiency as the evaluation indexes. Firstly, through a series of comparative experiments of the constant-current constant-voltage and the constant current charging strategy, the evaluation indexes variations in different temperatures and charging currents have been studied in the paper. By analyzing the respective characteristics of constant current charging phase and constant voltage charging phase in the whole charging process and their own contributions, we have found out the superiority of the constant current charging strategy.

Fuel cells directly convert the energy stored in hydrogen into electrical energy through an electrochemical reaction, and the only reaction product is water, which can improve the energy efficiency and reduce the pollution caused by fossil fuels. The fuel cell hybrid power system used in vehicles usually consists of a fuel cell stack and a power battery module, and the DC/DC converter is the key component to connect them together. The current ripples caused by the system have been confirmed to have detrimental effects on the fuel cell’s reliability and lifespan. In addition, it is one of the key factors that reduce the system efficiency. So, it is necessary to analyze the current ripple in the system and maintain it at a low level. In this paper, a brief review on the different kinds of converters used in vehicles has been made. Then, with the help of MATLAB/SIMULINK, a simulation model of the hybrid power system based on 4-phase interleaved parallel topology is established.

The cold-start of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) has been one of the technical challenges for fuel cell vehicle table ommercialization. In this study, a one-dimensional cold start transient model of PEMFC was developed for the transfer of water, heat, electrons and protons during the cold start process. Different loading modes, including constant voltage, constant current, and current ramping, were adopted for fuel cell cold starting analysis, respectively. The internal water-heat transfer within fuel cell was investigated under different loading modes. The results show that in the constant current mode, for the high current, the cold start process can produce more heat than other modes, which can increase fuel cell temperature rapidly. However, this process may easily fail before the ice fully covers the cathode catalyst layers (CL).

Regarding the lithium-ion batteries used in the electric vehicle, charging time and charging efficiency are the concern of the public. In this paper, a lot of experiments were conducted to investigate the common charging strategies, including the CC-CV (constant current-constant voltage) charging and the pulse current charging, for the LiFePO4 batteries, which are still widely used in commercial vehicles. Charging temperature and the charging current in the CC phase are the main influence factors to be studied for the CC-CV charging strategy, and the contribution of the CC phase and CV phase to the whole charging is analyzed from three aspects, including the time percent, charging energy efficiency and the capacity of battery at different temperatures and charging current.

The application of Li(Ni0.8Co0.1Mn0.1)O2 (NCM811) cathode-based lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) has alleviated electric vehicle range anxiety. However, the subsequent thermal safety issues limit their market acceptance. A detailed analysis of the failure evolution process for large-format LIBs is necessary to address the thermal safety issue. In this study, prismatic cells with nominal capacities of 144Ah and 125Ah are used to investigate the thermal runaway (TR) characteristics triggered by lateral overheating. Additionally, TR characteristics under two states of charge (SoCs) (100% and 5%) are discussed. Two cells with 100% SoC exhibit similar characteristics, including high failure temperature, high inhomogeneity of temperature distribution, multi-points jet fire, and significant mass loss. Two cells with 5% SoC demonstrate only a slight rupture of the safety valve and the emission of white smoke.