Optimal hydrogen consumption of fuel cell-based locomotive using speed trajectory optimization by Improved Pathfinder algorithm

Abstract

This paper proposes a new optimization methodology for presenting an efficient result of the hydrogen consumption and speed trajectory in a PEM fuel cell (PEMFC)-based locomotive energy system for transportation applications. After modeling the system, it has been linearized for simplification. The efficiency of the hydrogen consumption is maximized based on a new version of the Pathfinder (IPF) algorithm and the speed trajectory. The reason for designing IPF is to resolve the local optimum and fast convergence shortcomings during the maximization. Two scenarios including normal and extreme characteristics are performed to the system. The simulation results specified that the total traction energy for the normal mode and the extreme mode is 4.27 MJ and 4.80 MJ, respectively, and the optimal hydrogen consumption for these two modes are 0.0764 kg and 0.0628 kg, respectively. The final results showed that the locomotive improves significantly the efficiency of the system for hydrogen saving.