Conceptual design analysis for a lightweight aircraft with a fuel cell hybrid propulsion system

ABSTRACT

With the ever-growing aviation industry, energy researches on aviation have turned to renewable energy sources providing electric propulsion. Fuel cells are one of the most popular sources of power for electric vehicles terms of being greener, more reliability, and higher efficiency. Among fuel cells, the most attractive option for flight is polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). This paper aims to compose of a hybrid propulsion system to a lightweight aircraft Cri-Cri for more electric aircraft concept. For this purpose, first, conceptual a hybrid propulsion system is designed for the prototype aircraft. The fuel-cell hybrid system proposed for this paper consists of electric motor, fuel cell system, battery, DC/AC converter, and DC/DC converter. Second, some analyses are done. These analyses contain required power, hydrogen consumption, energy consumption, etc.. As a result, Cri-cri needs 26 Kw during take-off, 30 Kw during climb, 10 kW during cruise, and 7 kW during descent. It also consumed 0.75 kg of hydrogen in total, including 0.21 kg in the take-off and climb, 0.42 kg in the cruise, and 0.12 in the descent. The remaining 0.25 kg of hydrogen is reserved for use in emergencies. The total amount of energy consumed is 33 kWh.

KEYWORDS:

• PEMFC
• Cri Cri
• battery
• hybridization
• conceptual design
• aviation

Nomenclature

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Declaration of interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hüseyin Turan Arat

Hüseyin Turan Arat received his MSc in 2010. He received his PhD from Cukurova University-Adana in 2016. Currently, he is an Associate Professor Dr. in the Mechatronics Engineering Department of İskenderun Technical University, Hatay, Turkey. His research interests include energy, internal combustion engines, hybrid electric vehicles, hydrogen applications and aviation technologies.

Meryem Gizem Sürer

Meryem Gizem Sürer received her  BSc and MSc degrees in mechanical engineering from İskenderun Technical University in 2018 and 2020, respectively. Currently, she is a PhD candidate in the Mechanical Engineering Department of İskenderun Technical University, Hatay, Turkey. Her research interests include energy-exergy analyses, aviation and hybrid propulsion systems.

Semir Gökpinar

Semir Gökpınar received his PhD in 1997 on mechanical engineering from Erciyes University,Kayseri, Turkey. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor Dr. in the Mechanical Engineering, Department of İskenderun Technical University, Hatay, Turkey. His research interests include energy and heat transfer.

Kadir Aydin

Kadir Aydın received B.Sc and  M.Sc. in electrical and electronics engineering from Çukurova University, 1983 and 1986 respectively. In 1993, he received his PhD degree in mechanical engineering from Liverpool University. Since 2001, he has been with Mechanical Engineering Department in Çukurova University as full Professor. His research interests include internal combustion engines, energy applications, automotive engineering and aviaiton.