Fuel cells convert a fuel together with oxygen in a highly efficient electrochemical reaction to electricity and water. Automotive fuel cell systems mainly use compressed onboard stored hydrogen as fuel. Oxygen from ambient air is fed to the cathode of the fuel cell stack by an air supply subsystem.
For its current and next generation air supply subsystem NuCellSys has employed screw type compressor technology, which in the automotive area initially was developed for supercharged internal combustion (IC) engines.
As NVH expectations to fuel cell vehicles differ very much from IC-engine driven vehicles, specific efforts have to be taken to address the intense noise and vibration profile of the screw compressor.
This paper describes different counter measures which have been implemented into the NuCellSys next generation air supply subsystem. These counter measures shall firstly minimize the generated noise at the source and secondly attenuate the transferred air and structure-borne noise aiming to meet today's NVH expectations to a fuel cell vehicle.