Simulation and test of a fuel cell hybrid golf cart

Abstract

This paper establishes the simulation model of fuel cell hybrid golf cart (FCHGC), which applies the non-GUI mode of the Advanced Vehicle Simulator (ADVISOR) and the genetic algorithm (GA) to optimize it. Simulation of the objective function is composed of fuel consumption and vehicle dynamic performance; the variables are the fuel cell stack power sizes and the battery numbers. By means of simulation, the optimal parameters of vehicle power unit, fuel cell stack, and battery pack are worked out. On this basis, GUI mode of ADVISOR is used to select the rated power of vehicle motor. In line with simulation parameters, an electrical golf cart is refitted by adding a 2 kW hydrogen air proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) stack system and test the FCHGC. The result shows that the simulation data is effective but it needs improving compared with that of the real cart test. © 2014 Jingming Liang and Qifei Jian.