Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society (한국수소및신에너지학회논문집)

The Korean Hydrogen and New Energy Society (한국수소및신에너지학회)
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Development and Demonstration of 150W Fuel Cell Propulsion System for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)

무인항공기용 150W급 연료전지 동력원 개발 및 실증

  • Yang, Cheol-Nam (Surface Technology Division, Korea Institute of Materials Science) ;
  • Kim, Yang-Do (Dept. of Material Science and Engineering, Pusan Nat’l Univ.)
  • 양철남 (한국기계연구원 부설 재료연구소) ;
  • 김양도 (부산대학교 재료공학부)
  • Received : 2012.07.27
  • Accepted : 2012.08.24
  • Published : 2012.08.31
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Abstract

Long endurance is a key issue in the application of unmanned aerial vehicles. This study presents feasibility test results when fuel cell system as an alternative to the conventional engine is applied for the power of the UAV after the 150W fuel cell system is developed and packaged to the 1/4 scale super cub airplane. Fuel cell system is operated by dead-end method in the anode part and periodically purged to remove the water droplet in flow field during the operation. Oxygen in the air is supplied to the stack by the two air blowers. And fuel cell stack is water cooled by cooling circuit to dissipate the heat generated during the fuel cell operation. Weight balance is considered to integrate the stack and balance of plant (BOP) in package layout. In flight performance test, we demonstrated 4 times standalone take-off and landing. In the laboratory test simulating the flight condition to quantify the energy flow, the system is analyzed in detail. Sankey diagram shows that electric efficiency of the fuel cell system is 39.2%, heat loss 50.1%, parasitic loss 8.96%, and unreacted purged gas 1.67%, respectively compared to the total hydrogen input energy. Feasibility test results show that fuel cell system is high efficient and appropriate for the power of UAV.

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References

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Cited by

  1. Research Trend and Analysis of Altitude and Endurance for Fuel Cell Unmanned Aerial Vehicles vol.25, pp.4, 2014, https://doi.org/10.7316/KHNES.2014.25.4.393
  2. A fuel cell/battery hybrid power system for an unmanned aerial vehicle vol.30, pp.5, 2016, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-016-0448-3