Transient characteristics of a fuel cell powered UAV propulsion system

Author

Min Zhou ; Prasad, J.V.R.

Author_Institution

Georgia Inst. of Technol., Atlanta, GA, USA

fYear

2013

fDate

28-31 May 2013

Firstpage

114

Lastpage

123

Abstract

In this paper, the transient characteristics of a fuel cell powered UAV propulsion system are investigated through effective time constants and step command responses in the time domain. A fuel cell powered UAV model is obtained by modifying the Aerosonde UAV model with a fuel cell system and an electric motor. The influence of the model parameters on the transient response characteristics of a fuel cell powered UAV propulsion system is studied through parametric studies. In addition, the linearized longitudinal model of a fuel cell powered UAV is compared with that of a conventional gas powered configuration to illustrate the impact of the significant time delay associated with a fuel cell system.

Keywords

aerospace propulsion; aircraft power systems; autonomous aerial vehicles; electric motors; fuel cell vehicles; time-domain analysis; transient response; aerosonde UAV; electric motor; fuel cell powered UAV propulsion system; linearized longitudinal model; step command response; time constants; time delay; time domain response; transient response characteristics; unmanned aerial vehicle; unmanned aircraft system; Aerodynamics; Electric motors; Fuel cells; Mathematical model; Propellers; Transient analysis;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), 2013 International Conference on

Conference_Location

Atlanta, GA

Print_ISBN

978-1-4799-0815-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICUAS.2013.6564680

Filename

6564680