A Comparative Study of Fuel-Cell–Battery, Fuel-Cell–Ultracapacitor, and Fuel-Cell–Battery–Ultracapacitor Vehicles

Although many researchers have investigated the use of different powertrain topologies, component sizes, and control strategies in fuel-cell vehicles, a detailed parametric study of the vehicle types must be conducted before a fair comparison of fuel-cell vehicle types can be performed. This paper compares the near-optimal configurations for three topologies of vehicles: fuel-cell–battery, fuel-cell–ultracapacitor, and fuel-cell–battery–ultracapacitor. The objective function includes performance, fuel economy, and powertrain cost. The vehicle models, including detailed dc/dc converter models, are programmed in MATLAB/Simulink for the customized parametric study. A controller variable for each vehicle type is varied in the optimization.