Evaluation of design methodology, limitations, and iterations of a hydrogen fuelled hybrid fuel cell mini UAV

Abstract

Fossil fuels are being depleted day by day. The dependency on fossil fuels must be eliminated in the following years. Also, in the matter of emissions, the cleaner energy generation and usage techniques must be evaluated. The aviation industry is a big energy consumer nowadays. More electric aircraft and All-electric aircraft concepts are being worked on globally to achieve a sustainable aviation industry. Though the electric motors can produce enough thrust force for airliners, due to energy storage technology limitations, the thrust force can’t be sustained for a long duration flight. Battery technologies are being developed to overcome these limitations. Moreover, hybrid energy systems and sustainable onboard energy generation systems are trending to achieve sustainability. Fuel Cell and Hybrid Fuel Cell systems are two of the feasible onboard energy systems. The applications of these systems on UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) produce data for later studies. The system’s behavior during flight phases must be examined on platforms like mini UAVs to understand the system capabilities. In this work, the development phases of a mini UAV designed for Hybrid Fuel Cell flight are introduced. Design philosophy and methodology for designing a UAV with a hybrid propulsion system, limitations of such designs and iterations required during the flight tests are explained. Also, the detailed design estimations of power consumption and final power consumption data collected from flight tests of the aircraft were compared to provide valuable data for following power consumption limited aircraft design studies.