• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.587-595
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• 2018

Recently, research is being conducted to use a fuel cell as a power source of unmanned aircraft. However, safety standards about applying fuel cells to unmanned aircraft are insufficient. In this paper, to improve the safety of the fuel cells for unmanned aircraft is experimentally studied. For this reason, standards for safety of fuel cells were analyzed. And influence of vibration among the evaluation items related to the safety of the fuel cell for unmanned aircraft was discussed. In order to, at constant intervals, vibration was applied to the fuel cell, then the performance was measured, the measurement items were gas tightness, polarization curve, frequency response analysis (FRA). A total of 220 hours was experimented at 20 hour intervals. the result of vibration test, gas leakage rate was a maximum of -0.04826 kPa/min and Polarization curve reached a maximum of 1.0103 times of the initial value, the charge transfer resistance reached a maximum of 1.0104 times of the initial value. This research indicate that performance of fuel cell is affected by vibration and this study is expected to contribute to the safety of fuel cell for unmanned aircraft.

• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.17-37
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• 2022

This paper discusses an improved unmanned aerial vehicle, UAV, configuration characterized by telescopic booms to optimize the flight mechanics and fuel consumption of the aircraft at various loading/flight conditions.The starting point consists of a full-composite smaller UAV which was derived by a general aviation ultralight motorized aircraft ULM. The present design, named ToBoFlex, extends the two-booms configuration to a three tons aircraft. To adapt the design to needs relevant to different applications, new solutions were proposed in aerodynamic fields and materials and structural areas. Different structural solutions were reported. To optimize aircraft endurance, the innovative concept of Telescopic Tail Boom was considered along with two different tails architecture. A new structural configuration of the fuselage was proposed. Further consideration of hydrogen fuel cell electric propulsion is now being studied in collaboration between the Polytechnic of Turin and Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University which could be the starting point of future investigations.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.39 no.7
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• pp.627-633
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• 2011

Performance of a hydrogen generator for a fuel cell unmanned aircraft was evaluated as the change of temperature environment. Sodium borohydride ($NaBH_4$) was used as a hydrogen source due to its high hydrogen content and good storability. The hydrogen gas was generated by the hydrolysis reaction using a catalytic reactor. Reaction chambers were set up with the range of temperatures from -20 to $60^{\circ}C$. The hydrogen generation rate and temperatures changes of reactor and separator were measured at the $NaBH_4$ concentrations of 20 and 25wt.%. As a result, the hydrogen generation rate was decreased as the repeated reaction cycles. It showed that the hydrogen generation rate was stable at low temperature, while at high temperature the hydrogen generation rate was rapidly decreased. The performance degradation was mainly caused by the catalyst loss and $NaBO_2$ deposition on the catalyst surface.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.405-418
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• 2014

Fuel cells are suitable for a power plant of a unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) as it is not only environmentally friendly and quiet but also more efficient than an internal combustion engine. A fuel cell hybrid UAV has better performance in endurance than a fuel cell only or battery only UAV. One of the key purposes of making fuel cell hybrid UAVs is having long endurance and now maximum 26 hours of flight is possible. Because optimal design and control methods for fuel cell hybrid UAVs are absolutely needed for their long endurance we have to check the methods. The aircraft made by using application-integrated design method has less BOP mass and better performances. The optimal design and control methods are generally based on computer simulations or Hardware-In-The-Loop simulations by using dynamic models for their design and control. The Hardware-In-The-Loop simulation (HILS) is to use a hardware device like a fuel cell stack as well as a simulation program and it allows for making optimally designed applications. This paper introduce efficient methods of design, control and evaluation for the fuel cell hybrid UAVs.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.41-51
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• 2016

In the stratosphere, the air is stable and a photovoltaic (PV) system can produce more solar energy compared to in the atmosphere. If unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) fly in the stratosphere, the flight stability and efficiency of the mission are improved. On the other hand, the weakened lift force of the UAV due to the rarefied atmosphere can require more power for lift according to the weight and/or wing area of the UAV. To solve this problem, it is necessary to minimize the weight of the aircraft and improve the performance of the power system. A regenerative fuel cell (RFC) consisting of a fuel cell (FC) and water electrolysis (WE) combined PV power system has been investigated as a good alterative because of its higher specific energy. The WE system produces hydrogen and oxygen, providing extra energy beyond the energy generated by the PV system in the daytime, and then saves the gases in tanks. The FC system supplies the required power to the UAV at night, so the additional fuel supply to the UAV is not needed anymore. The specific energy of RFC systems is higher than that of Li-ion battery systems, so they have less weight than batteries that supply the same energy to the UAV. In this paper, for a stratospheric long-endurance hybrid UAV based on an RFC system, three major design factors (UAV weight, wing area and performance of WE) affecting the ability of long-term flight were determined and a simulation-based feasibility study was performed. The effects of the three design factors were analyzed as the flight time increased, and acceptable values of the factors for long endurance were found. As a result, the long-endurance of the target UAV was possible when the values were under 350 kg, above 150 m² and under 80 kWh/kg H₂.