Incorporating the best sizing and a new energy management approach into the fuel cell hybrid electric vehicle design

Under the banner of sustainable transportation, fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles (FC-HEVs) have become a matter of fascination in today's ever-growing need to save fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, addressing the 3Es challenges (efficiency, economy, and environment). However, one of the most pressing issues at the moment is determining how to incorporate the optimal sizing and energy management strategy (EMS) into FC-HEVs. In this regard, this article presents an integrated approach for optimal sizing as well as a new energy strategy for the design of FC-HEVs. To minimize the decision variables, including operating cost, fuel consumption, and component weight, an in-house optimization MATLAB code with a Multi-Objective Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm was developed. Four energy cases were tested under ARTEMIS and NEDC driving cycles for simulation, and their influence on the key decision variables was also investigated. The results show that using a battery pack with a supercapacitor reduces fuel consumption by 19% and 30.3% in both driving cycles, while decreasing the maximum output power of the fuel cell. It should be noted that hybrid energy sources have the potential to improve vehicle performance.