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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.

For distributed drive electric vehicles (DDEVs), the influence of the power ratio between the front and rear motors on the energy efficiency characteristics is investigated. The power-train systems of the DDEVs in this study are divided into two different power-train configurations. The first is with its front axle driven by wheel-side motors and the rear axle driven by in-wheel motors, and the second is with both the front and rear axles driven by in-wheel motors. The energy consumption simulation and analysis platform of the DDEV is built with Matlab/Simulink. The parameters of the key components are determined by the experiments to ensure the validity of the data used in simulation. At the same time, the vehicle’s average energy efficiency coefficient is defined to describe the energy efficiency characteristics of the power-train strictly. Besides, the control strategies for driving and braking of the DDEV based on energy efficiency optimization are presented.

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.

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.

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).