Recuperation with battery/fuel cell hybrid in the Antares DLR-H2

Abstract

In the past the Antares DLR-H2 has been used to test fuel cell systems by the Systems Technology Group of the German Aerospace Center. Also a concept for a direct fuel cell, battery hybrid has been proposed. For prove of concept the proposed power module, the Antares DLR-H2 shall be used once again as a flying test-bed. Theoretical layout of the hybrid power module has been done. Using models of fuel cell and battery, system performance has been evaluated and flights have been simulated with actual in-flight recoded data. In a next step recharging of the batteries during low load conditions and the possibilities of recuperation are evaluated. To asses more knowledge on the behavior of the hybrid the existing models are extended to include recharging of the battery. The extended models are then used to evaluate different hybrid configurations in regard to efficiently recharging the batteries.