Experimental investigation of fuel cell usage on an air Vehicle's hybrid propulsion system

Abstract

Today, drones are offering a key solution and being preferable more and more by governments and companies for military and commercial usage. One of the biggest handicaps to the more widespread usage of drones is insufficient flight time and weight issues. The aim of this study is to contribute to the literature about of increasing the flight time in drones. In this experimental study, a hybrid propulsion system is designed using fuel cell and battery to increase the flight time of a quadcopter. This hybrid propulsion system mainly consists of 30 W polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), compressed hydrogen tank, lithium-polymer battery and 4 brushless motors that drive propeller. As a result of the test flights done in flight route, some parameters like endurance, energy consumption and hydrogen consumption are analyzed; by the way obtained results are graphed comparatively. Consequently, when the fuel cell is used, an improvement of approximately 2 min in total 12 flight tests is achieved. (C) 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.