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As part of a continuous research and innovation effort, Ford Motor Company has been evaluating hydrogen as an alternative fuel option for vehicles with internal combustion engines since 1997. Ford has recently designed and built an Econoline (E-450) shuttle bus with a 6.8L Triton engine that uses gaseous hydrogen fuel. Safe practices in the production, storage, distribution, and use of hydrogen are essential for the widespread public and commercial acceptance of hydrogen vehicles. Hazards and risks inherent in the application of hydrogen fuel to internal combustion engine vehicles are explained. The development of a Hydrogen Management System (H2MS) to detect hydrogen leaks in the vehicle is discussed, including the evolution of the H2MS design from exploration and quantification of risks, to implementation and validation of a working system on a vehicle. System elements for detection, mitigation, and warning are examined.

As a part of a continuous research and innovation effort, Ford Motor Company has been evaluating hydrogen since 1997 as an alternative fuel option for vehicles with internal combustion engines. Hydrogen fuel is attractive in that it is the cleanest fuel. Hydrogen, when used in an internal combustion engine, produces an exhaust emission consisting mainly of water vapor, with no carbon dioxide and trace amounts of other regulated pollutants. Hydrogen can be produced from renewable sources which will help reduce the dependence on foreign oil. The implementation of the hydrogen powered IC engine is seen as a strategy to help transition from a petroleum economy to a hydrogen economy and drive development of hydrogen storage, fueling infrastructure and other hydrogen related technologies.

Automotive product development requires higher degree of quality upfront engineering, faster CAE turn-around, and integration with other functional requirements. Prediction of potential durability concerns using analytical methods for sheet metal structures subjected to road loads and other customer uses has become very important. A process has been developed to provide design direction based upon peak loads, simultaneous peak loads, and vehicle program analytical or measured loads. It identifies critical loads at each input location and load sets for multiple input locations, filters load time histories, selects critical areas and analyzes for fatigue life. Several case studies have been completed. The results show that the variations are consistent with the accuracies in finite element analysis, road load data acquisition, and fatigue calculation methods.