JP5076776B2 - Fuel cell motorcycle - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a fuel cell motorcycle.

  A fuel cell vehicle is a fuel cylinder that stores fuel gas (for example, hydrogen gas) as a main component, a fuel cell that generates power by receiving the supply of the fuel gas, a secondary battery such as a battery, and a prime mover of the vehicle. And a control device for controlling the motor and the fuel cell.

Many fuel cells are equipped with a dedicated cooling device to generate heat when the fuel and air react to generate electricity. In the case of a scooter type fuel cell two-wheeled vehicle, the interior of the vehicle body covered with the vehicle body cover has a large space, and thus a water-cooled cooling device is generally provided. (For example, refer to Patent Documents 1 and 2).
JP 2007-83953 A JP 2007-118666 A

  However, in the case of a water-cooled cooling device, parts such as a pump, a radiator, and piping are required, which increases the weight and cost, and complicates the structure.

  In particular, in the case of a sports-oriented fuel cell motorcycle different from a scooter type fuel cell motorcycle, there is no room for the arrangement space, and an increase in weight impairs sportiness.

  Therefore, it is conceivable to use an air-cooling type cooling device. However, in the case of a scooter type fuel cell two-wheeled vehicle, there are many examples in which the fuel cell is mounted at a low position of the vehicle body due to its unique body structure. There was concern that splash water, mud, etc. could enter the fuel cell from the wind inlet.

  The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-described circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a fuel cell two-wheeled vehicle that can cool the fuel cell with a simple structure and prevents foreign matter from entering the fuel cell. To do.

In order to solve the above-described problems, a fuel cell motorcycle according to the present invention generates a power by receiving a fuel cylinder for storing a fuel gas such as hydrogen gas and the supply of the fuel gas as described in claim 1. An air-cooled fuel cell, wherein the fuel cell is driven between the head pipe at the front end of the body frame and the driving seat at the rear of the body frame. Further, the fuel cell is disposed at substantially the same height as the operation seat , a filter is disposed on the upper surface of the fuel cell, and a cooling fan constituting a cooling device is disposed on the lower surface of the fuel cell. Air is introduced toward the lower surface, the fuel cylinder is disposed below the fuel cell, and the exhaust hole of the cooling fan for cooling the fuel cell is provided in the fuel cylinder. It is obtained by opening towards.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, as described in claim 2, the periphery of the fuel cell is covered with a cowling, and an outside air inlet is opened on a side surface of the cowling. The length of the outside air inlet is Is approximately the same as the length of the fuel cell.

Furthermore, in order to solve the above problems, as described in claim 3, the fuel cell is obtained by arranging the above filter at a position higher than the outside air introduction port provided in the cowling.

In order to solve the above-described problem, as described in claim 4, the fuel cell and the fuel cylinder disposed below the fuel cell are disposed so as to overlap each other substantially vertically. It is a thing.

  According to the fuel cell two-wheeled vehicle of the present invention, it is possible to prevent splash water, mud, rainwater and the like from entering the fuel cell with a simple structure, and to improve the reactivity of the air with the fuel and the cooling performance of the fuel cell. .

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a left side view showing an example of a fuel cell motorcycle to which the present invention is applied. As shown in FIG. 1, the fuel cell motorcycle 1 has a vehicle body frame 2. The vehicle body frame 2 of the fuel cell motorcycle 1 mainly includes a head pipe 3, a down frame member 4, a pivot bracket member 5, a main frame member 6, and a seat frame member 7. The body frame 2 is covered with a cowling 8. The cowling 8 includes an upper cowling 9 that mainly covers the body frame 2 from above, and an under cowling 10 that covers the front lower portion of the body frame 2.

  A steering mechanism 11 is provided on the head pipe 3 provided at the foremost part of the vehicle body frame 2. The steering mechanism 11 is provided with a pair of left and right front forks 13, a handle bar 14, a front fender 15 and the like that support the front wheel 12 in a rotatable manner and are equipped with a front cushion unit (not shown). Thus, the front wheel 12 is steered so as to be able to turn left and right.

  FIG. 2 is a left side view of the fuel cell motorcycle 1 with the cowling 8 removed. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a down frame member 4 extends from the rear surface of the head pipe 3 provided at the front portion of the vehicle body frame 2 toward the rear side of the lower front wheel 12. A pair of left and right pivot bracket members 5 are provided at the rear of the body frame 2 so as to extend rearward and upward.

  Further, a pair of left and right main frame members 6 extend linearly downward from the rear surface of the head pipe 3 toward the front lower end portion of the pivot bracket member 5 when viewed from the side of the vehicle. Then, a pair of left and right seat frame members 7 whose front ends are connected to the lower portion of the down frame member 4 and whose rear ends are supported by the upper end portion of the pivot bracket member 5 intersect in an X shape at a substantially middle portion of the main frame member 6. And it is extended in the front-back direction of a vehicle.

  The pivot bracket member 5 is provided with a swing pivot portion 16 at a lower portion thereof, and a front end of a rear swing arm 17 is pivotally attached to the swing pivot portion 16 and is attached to the vehicle body frame 2 via a rear cushion unit 18. Elastically supported. A rear wheel 19 is pivotally supported at the rear end of the rear swing arm 17 so as to be rotatable. An operation seat 20 is provided above the pivot bracket member 5.

  As shown in the system configuration diagram of FIG. 3, the fuel cell two-wheeled vehicle 1 includes a fuel cylinder 31 that stores high-pressure hydrogen gas that is a fuel gas as main components, and an oxygen that is a supply of the fuel gas and an oxidant. A fuel cell 32 that generates electric power upon receiving the supply of air, a secondary battery 33 such as a battery that assists the output of the fuel cell 32, and a motor 34 that will be described later as a fuel cell 32 and a motor for the vehicle are controlled. And a system control device 35.

  The main component is a vehicle body between a head pipe 3 at the front end of the vehicle body frame 2 that supports the front wheel 12 in a steerable manner and a driving seat 20 that is disposed above the rear wheel 19 and is supported at the rear portion of the vehicle body frame 2. In the space surrounded by the frame 2, at least the fuel cell 32, the fuel cylinder 31 and the secondary battery 33 are arranged and supported in a state where they substantially overlap each other.

  Specifically, the fuel cylinder 31 is disposed in the center, the fuel cell 32 is disposed on the upper side, and the secondary battery 33 is disposed on the lower side, and the fuel cylinder 31 is disposed on the pair of left and right seat frame members 7 and the main frame member 6. The fuel cylinder 31 is disposed in a state where it is inclined forward so that the fuel cylinder 31 overlaps the intersections with each other and the longitudinal direction of the fuel cylinder 31 is along the longitudinal direction of the seat frame member 7.

  Further, the fuel cylinder 31 is held so that the front and rear thereof are sandwiched from the front and rear by the front cover 36 and the rear cover 37. Further, an intermediate portion of the fuel cylinder 31 is held from below by a stay 38 (or bracket) laid between the left and right seat frame members 7, for example.

  On the other hand, the fuel cell 32 is disposed between the head pipe 3 at the front end of the vehicle body frame 2 and the driving seat 20 at substantially the same height as the driving seat 20 and in a forward tilted state.

  Between the fuel cylinder 31 and the fuel cell 32, a hydrogen shut-off valve 39 (see FIG. 3) for shutting off the fuel system when fuel leaks, and a regulator (pressure regulating valve) for adjusting the hydrogen supply pressure (see FIG. 3). (Not shown), a hydrogen filling port (not shown) is provided, and is connected by the fuel supply pipe 40, and also includes a pressure sensor 41, a temperature sensor 42, and the like for measuring the pressure and temperature of the supplied hydrogen ( 3) is also provided.

  The system control device 35 mainly converts a power control device 43 that performs power conversion control of the power generated by the fuel cell 32, converts power from the power control device 43 and the secondary battery 33 into a 12V power source, and supplies the power to each component. It is driven by the power conversion / distribution device 44, the motor controller 45 for driving and controlling the motor 34 by converting the DC power supplied from the power conversion / distribution device 44 into three-phase AC power, and the power supplied from the motor controller 45. The motor 34 and a vehicle controller 46 that controls the motor 34 are integrated, and each device is connected by an electric wire 47.

  The driving force generated by the motor 34 is transmitted to the rear wheel 19 which is a driving wheel via a transmission (not shown). Further, in addition to the drive control of the motor 34 described above, the motor controller 45 performs regenerative control that converts the negative torque of the motor 34 generated when the vehicle is decelerated into electric power, and supplies the electric power generated by the regeneration to the secondary battery 33. store.

  The vehicle controller 46 is a device that performs system control and vehicle control including the fuel cell 32, and includes, for example, a throttle sensor 48 (see FIG. 3) for transmitting the driver's intention to accelerate, the hydrogen pressure sensor 41, and the temperature. Sensors 42, sensors such as a hydrogen sensor 49 for detecting fuel leakage, and the hydrogen cutoff valve 39 are also connected to the vehicle controller 46. And system control and vehicle control are performed according to the information read via each sensor.

  The periphery of the fuel cell 32, the power control device 43, the power conversion / distribution device 44, the vehicle controller 46, and the hydrogen sensor 49 is covered by the upper cowling 9 from above, and the motor controller 45 and the secondary battery 33 are under cowling 10. Placed inside.

  A motor 34 as a motor for driving the rear wheel 19 is integrally attached to the rear swing arm 17 to form a unit swing type swing arm. Further, the power control device 43, the power conversion / distribution device 44, and the vehicle controller 46 constituting the system control device 35 are in the vicinity of the fuel cell 32 disposed above the fuel cylinder 31, for example, the power control device 43 is located behind the fuel cell 32. The power conversion / distribution device 44 and the vehicle controller 46 are respectively disposed above the fuel cell 32, while the motor controller 45 and the secondary battery 33 are disposed below the fuel cylinder 31, for example, the motor controller 45 is disposed on the front side and the secondary side. The batteries 33 are arranged in tandem on the rear side. At this time, the secondary battery 33 is disposed in a forwardly inclined state in accordance with the inclination of the fuel cylinder 31. The hydrogen sensor 49 is disposed at the uppermost part of the main component.

  4 is a cross-sectional view taken along line IV-IV in FIG. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 4, a mesh-like outside air inlet 50 for supplying air containing oxygen as an oxidant to the fuel cell 32 is opened on the side surface of the upper cowling 9. The outside air inlet 50 has substantially the same length as the length of the fuel cell 32. A filter 52 for filtering impurities in the air is disposed on the upper surface of the fuel cell 32. Further, the filter 52 is disposed at a position higher than the outside air inlet 50. The upper cowling 9 just above the outside air inlet 50 is formed to project outward.

  FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the fuel cell 32. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the fuel cell 32 applied to the present invention includes an air cooling type cooling device 51. The cooling device 51 includes an electric cooling fan 53, and the cooling fan 53 is disposed on the lower surface of the fuel cell 32, that is, above the fuel cylinder 31.

  The cooling fan 53 cools the fuel cell 32 by introducing the air taken in from the upper side of the fuel cell 32 to react with the fuel to the lower side of the fuel cell 32 and an exhaust duct attached to the cooling fan 53. 54 exhaust holes 55 are opened toward the fuel cylinder 31, whereby the warm exhaust air after cooling the fuel cell 32 is discharged toward the fuel cylinder 31.

  Although not shown in detail in the under cowling 10, another outside air inlet for taking in cooling air for cooling the motor controller 45 is formed.

  Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.

  By disposing the fuel cell 32 between the head pipe 3 at the front end of the vehicle body frame 2 and the operation seat 20 at substantially the same height as the operation seat 20 and in a forward tilted state, splash water, mud, and the like are removed from the fuel cell. As a result, the ram pressure received from the front of the vehicle can be used more effectively than in the case where the fuel cell 32 is disposed horizontally, and the fuel cell 32 can be sucked smoothly. As a result, the reactivity with the fuel and the cooling performance of the fuel cell 32 are improved.

  Further, by arranging the fuel cell 32 higher, it is possible to open the outside air inlet 50 on the side surface of the cowling 9 that covers the fuel cell 32, and direct air intake can be performed. Further, since the length of the outside air introduction port 50 is made substantially the same as the length of the fuel cell 32, the ingress of air from the outside air introduction port 50 is controlled to be constant with respect to the upper surface of the fuel cell 32. As a result, the reactivity with the fuel and the cooling performance of the fuel cell 32 are improved, and a rapid temperature rise at a specific part can be avoided, and the performance of the fuel cell 32 can be maintained high.

  On the other hand, the filter 52 is disposed on the upper surface of the fuel cell 32, the cooling fan 53 constituting the cooling device 51 is disposed on the lower surface, and the filter 52 is disposed at a position higher than the outside air introduction port 50. By introducing air toward the lower surface, even if foreign matter such as sand or stone enters from the outside air introduction port 50, the filter 52 is not directly affected. Further, if the upper cowling 9 immediately above the outside air introduction port 50 is formed so as to project outward, it is possible to prevent rainwater from entering the outside air introduction port 50 from above.

  By the way, although the temperature of the fuel cylinder 31 is reduced as the fuel is consumed (evaporative cooling), there is a possibility that the stable supply of the fuel may be hindered. By configuring the exhaust hole 55 of the cooling fan 53 that cools the cooling fan 32 toward the fuel cylinder 31 so that the warm exhaust air after cooling the fuel cell 32 is discharged toward the fuel cylinder 31, The temperature reduction of the cylinder 31 is prevented, and fuel can be supplied stably.

  Although not shown in detail, the same effect can be expected whether the outside air inlet 50 is slit or mesh. In particular, when the outside air introduction port 50 is formed in a mesh shape, it is possible to prevent invasion of foreign substances having a certain size in the front stage of the filter 52. In addition, the size and shape of the outside air inlet 50 can be freely set according to the amount of air necessary for the reaction with the fuel and the cooling of the fuel cell 32. In the present embodiment, an example in which the present invention is applied to a sports-oriented fuel cell motorcycle has been described.

The figure which shows one Embodiment of the fuel cell two-wheeled vehicle which concerns on this invention. The left side view of the motorcycle with the cowling removed. 1 is a system configuration diagram of a fuel cell motorcycle. Sectional drawing which follows the IV-IV line of FIG. The perspective view of a fuel cell.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Fuel cell two-wheeled vehicle 2 Body frame 3 Head pipe 8 Cowling 9 Upper cowling 20 Driving seat 31 Fuel cylinder 32 Fuel cell 34 Motor 50 Outside air inlet 51 Cooling device 52 Filter 53 Cooling fan 55 Exhaust hole of cooling fan

Claims (4)

A fuel cell comprising a fuel cylinder for storing a fuel gas such as hydrogen gas, and an air-cooled fuel cell that generates power upon receipt of the supply of the fuel gas, and travels by driving a motor with the electric power generated by the fuel cell In a motorcycle, the fuel cell is disposed between the head pipe at the front end of the vehicle body frame and the operation seat at the rear of the vehicle body frame at substantially the same height as the operation seat, and a filter is disposed on the upper surface of the fuel cell. A cooling fan constituting a cooling device is disposed on the lower surface of the battery so that air is introduced from the upper surface to the lower surface of the fuel cell, and the fuel cylinder is disposed below the fuel cell, A fuel cell motorcycle, wherein an exhaust hole of the cooling fan for cooling the fuel cell is opened toward the fuel cylinder . 2. The fuel cell two-wheeled vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein the fuel cell is covered with a cowling, an outside air inlet is opened on a side surface of the cowling, and the length of the outside air inlet is substantially the same as the length of the fuel cell. . The fuel cell motorcycle according to claim 2 , wherein the fuel cell is provided with the filter at a position higher than the outside air inlet provided in the cowling . The fuel cell motorcycle according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the fuel cell and the fuel cylinder disposed below the fuel cell are disposed in a forwardly inclined state so as to substantially overlap each other. .

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