Optimal sizing of propulsion systems applied to fuel cell based vehicles

The propulsion system implemented in a fuel cell based vehicle strongly affects the mass, cost and volume of the overall system. The design of a propulsion system architecture, which comprises different power converters and secondary energy storage systems, is closely related to the driving profile applied, since the power and energy requirements depend on the driving profile. This paper tackles the optimum sizing of the secondary energy storage systems, as well as the set of equations that describes the mass and cost of each one of the power train subsystems. After that, ten different propulsion systems are analyzed in order to determine which of them minimize the mass, cost and volume depending on the power delivered by the fuel cell.