Patrick J Szary

Fabrication and Testing of a Hybrid Electric Vehicle Utilizing a Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) Fuel Cell

Hydrogen fuel cell powered systems might soon replace the conventional combustion engines used in todays vehicles. Fuel cells hold a great deal of promise for mobile applications including vehicles because they are environmentally friendly and can provide an alternative power supply. They may prove to be the keystone in making traditional electric vehicles a feasible everyday and long-range alternative to conventional combustion driven vehicles. One example of this type of electric vehicle is the New Jersey Venturer, which was equipped with a PEM fuel cell system to demonstrate the use of this new technology.

Piezoelectric ceramic-polymer composites for weigh-in-motion sensors

Piezoelectric materials produce a voltage proportional to an applied pressure. Using this phenomenon, piezoelectric polymer sensors are already being used for collecting traffic data including weight-in-motion, measuring speeds and counting axles. The polymer sensors are usually in the form of a long tape or cable embedded within long blocks of elastomeric material. These sensor assemblies are then installed into grooves, which are cut into roads perpendicular to the traffic flow. The biggest disadvantage of these sensors is that the piezoelectric output is not uniform with temperature, thus leading to large uncertainty in the data collected. Piezoelectric ceramics have a much more stable response over a large temperature range. However, until now they have not been used for traffic data sensors because of their inherent brittleness. In this research project flexible ceramic/polymer composite strips have been fabricated for use as piezoelectric sensors for measuring large vehicle loads. Here, the ceramic is the active piezoelectric material that is embedded in a flexible non-piezoelectric polymer. After encapsulating these sensors in elastomeric blocks in aluminum channels, the voltage output of the composite for different loads have been determined. Also, these composite sensor assemblies are being installed on a test road in order to perform actual measurements.