Battery modelling plays a critical role in battery management tasks. A model that provides accurate estimations of state of charge and state of heath in varying operating conditions could significantly improve the performance of battery management systems. Departing from existing literature, this paper presents a self-adaptive Piecewise Equivalent Circuit Model (PECM) based on Extended Kalman Filter (EKF). While traditional Equivalent Circuit Models (ECM) are typically parameterized and validated for a specific range of working conditions (temperature, current and etc.), PECM is able to adapt itself to any working condition in real time. Established in the form of a combination of linear and nonlinear piecewise functions, the model parameters are continuously adjusted based on the measurement of voltage, current, and temperature. Another advantage of PECM is it does not require any prior tests in the lab, for example the Open Circuit Voltage (OCV) test which is time consuming and needs to be calibrated when aged. PECM is accurate, flexible and efficient. It has been validated for different battery chemistries, duty cycles, and temperatures. Furthermore, PECM comes with the State of Charge (SOC) and State of Health (SOH) estimation, which is shown in the model validation process and the degradation study. The results demonstrate that the piecewise parameter adaptation proposed in this paper can be applied to a range of different battery chemistries and at different aged states.

This is an open access article under the CC BY license\ud (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)Despite having efficiencies higher than internal combustion engines, heat rejection from fuel cells remains challenging due to lower operating temperatures and reduced exhaust heat flow. This work details a full system simulation which is then used to compare a conventional liquid cooled fuel cell system to two types of evaporatively cooled fuel cell systems. Both steady state and transient operation are considered. Results show the radiator frontal area required to achieve thermal and water balance for an evaporatively cooled system with an aluminium condensing radiator is 27% less than a conventional liquid cooled system at 1.25 A/cm2 steady state operation. The primary reason for the reduction is higher heat transfer coefficients in the condensing radiator due to phase change. It is also shown that the liquid water separation efficiency has a significant influence on the required radiator frontal area of the evaporatively cooled system

This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://\ud creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Maintaining proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) stack operating temperature across transient current profiles presents a significant challenge for fuel cell vehicles. Liquid cooled systems require active control of coolant temperature and flow rate to match heat rejection to heat generation. Evaporative cooling is an alternative to conventional liquid cooling in automotive sized PEMFC stacks. In an evaporatively cooled system, liquid water is injected directly into the cathode flow channels where it evaporates, both cooling and humidifying the stack. This paper uses a validated simulation to explore the inherent temperature regulation abilities of an evaporatively cooled PEMFC stack across a range of current profiles and drive cycles. Results show that throughout the normal operating current range, stack temperature varies by less than±2.0°C, this is comparable to liquid cooling but without the need for active temperature control. The introduction of variable operating pressure and cathode stoichiometry using proportional integral control, can further reduce temperature variation to±1.0°C and±1.2°C respectively for step increases in current demand. Variable operating pressure is also shown to improve warm up time and reduce heat loss at low operating loads

Climate change and the major threat it poses to the environment and human lives is the major challenge the world faces today. To overcome this challenge, it is recommended that future automobiles have zero carbon exhaust emissions. Even though battery electric vehicles reduce carbon emissions relative to combustion engines, a carbon footprint still remains in the overall ecosystem unless the battery is powered by renewable energy sources. The proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is an alternate source for automotive mobility which, similar to battery electric vehicles, has zero carbon emissions from its exhaust pipe. Moreover, the typical system level efficiency of a PEMFC is higher than an equivalent internal combustion powertrain. This review article covers the background history, working principles, challenges and applications of PEMFCs for automotive transportation and power generation in industries. Since the performance of a PEMFC is greatly influenced by the design of the anode and cathode flow channels, an in-depth review has been carried out on different types of flow channel designs. This review reveals the importance of flow channel design with respect to uniform gas (reactant) distribution, membrane proton conductivity, water flooding and thermal management. An exhaustive study has been carried out on different types of flow channels, such as parallel, serpentine, interdigitated and bio-inspired, with respect to their performance and applications.