Prediction of hydrogen utilization of a PEMFC-powered hexacopter by modelling approach

• Main Author: Tan, Lynette Ying Yu
• Other Authors: Chan Siew Hwa
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering::Alternative, renewable energy sources
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/72271
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

It is desirable to implement polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells in hexarotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) due to the greater stability and higher payload offered by this type of UAV and the extended flight time made possible by the use of PEM fuel cells. In the preliminary stages of design it is necessary to know how the components selected for the UAV ultimately affect the hydrogen consumption in order to optimize the UAV performance. The predictive model proposed in this report allows for the hydrogen consumption of a UAV to be calculated based on the parameters of the fuel cell, propeller and rotor. The report also discusses the implementation of the prediction method with the use of a selection of commercially available components to estimate hydrogen consumption rate and flight time of a hypothetical UAV. The estimated value of the power requirement of the motors is compared against manufacturer’s data and shows the method to be fairly conservative and accurate. Following this hydrogen consumption is theoretically calculated based on the power requirement and also compared with test data from the manufacturer. The comparison shows the model to be reasonably accurate. It is less than 2% deviation from the manufacturer’s test data in the absence of practical energy losses (e.g. ohmic losses). The focus of this report is a modeling strategy to estimate the flight time of a PEM fuel cell-powered UAV based on the parameters of the UAV.