AIR COOLING OF A 2-SEATER FUEL CELLS POWERED AIRCRAFT: DYNAMIC MODELLING AND COMPARISONS WITH EXPERIEMTAL DATA

G. ROMEO, G. CORREA, F. BORELLO, E. CESTINO, M.SANTARELLI

JOURNAL OF AEROSPACE ENGINEERING

ASCE-AMER SOC CIVIL ENGINEERS

Año: 2012 vol. 25 p. 356 - 368

0893-1321

The application of fuel cell technology to aircraft propulsion and/or energy supply is becoming of great interest for undoubted advantages in terms of pollution emissions and noise reduction. A better understanding of problems related to fuel cells applied to aeronautics is sought by the EC funded project ENFICA-FC (ENvironmentally Friendly Inter City Aircraft powered by Fuel Cells). The main objective of the ENFICA-FC project was to develop and validate the use of a fuel cell based power system for the propulsion of more/all electric aircraft. The fuel cell system was installed in the light sport aircraft RAPID 200 which was flight and performance tested. One of the key items under investigation is the simulation of the cooling system and the evaluation of fuel cell temperature. The PEMFC is considered to be the best candidate for the fuel cell vehicle because it has high power density, solid membrane electrolyte, and as it operates at low temperatures, it has a fast start-up. However, in order to generate a reliable and efficient power response and to prevent membrane degradation or damage (with hydrogen and oxygen depletion), a sophisticated control technique becomes vitally important. In particular, as the ionic conduction of the polymeric membrane is a function of its degree of humidification, the stack temperature has to be carefully controlled to avoid phenomena of water evaporation causing an increase of ohmic drop and a decrease of stack performances. The output voltage (and hence the power) of the fuel cells system is affected considerably by the change of the stack temperature. A simplified fluid-dynamic model has been developed and validated by CFD analysis and it is used to compute the air flow to the fuel cell heat exchanger inlet. Propeller effects are included referring to an optimal propeller specifically designed for the ENFICA-FC project. A mathematical model of the fuel cell system dynamics coupled with the fluid-dynamic model was studied in detail and experimental validated during two flight tests of the Rapid 200FC.