Abstract
One of the most important devices in an underwater vessel is a propulsion system. It should be a quiet and efficient system for stealthy operations in the large mission area. Hence lead-acid battery system has been used to supply the energy to electric motor. Recent technological developments and improvements, such as polymer electrolyte membrane(PEM) fuel cell and lithium polymer battery and have created the potential to improve overall power and propulsion performance. An underwater vessel always starts their mission with a limited energy and is not easy to refuel. Therefore design of energy elements, such as fuel cell and battery, and their load distribution are important to increase the maximum operating time of underwater vessel. In this paper, the lead-acid battery/PEM fuel cell and lithium polymer battery/PEM fuel cell were suggested as propulsion system and their performances were analyzed by modeling and simulation using Matlab/Simulink. Each model concentrated on representing the characteristics of energy element depending on demand current. As a result the effect of load distribution between battery and fuel cell was evaluated and the operation time of each propulsion system was able to be estimated exactly.