Yunt, MehmetChachuat, BenoitMitsos, AlexanderBarton, Paul I.2007-09-212007-09-21200810.1002/aic.11442https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/12304WOS:00025504670001212643Portable electronic devices operate at varying power demand levels. This variability of power demand must be considered explicitly in the design of man-portable power generation systems for acceptable performance and portability. In this regard, a mathematical programming based design method is proposed. The method transcribes optimal operation of the system at a given power demand into a mathematical program. The power demand specific programs are incorporated into another upper level mathematical program encoding design requirements to form a final two-stage formulation. The design and operational parameters of the power generation system comprise a solution of the formulation. Unlike designs, based on a nominal power demand, the design guarantees that each power demand and all operational requirements can be satisfied. A detailed study of a microfabricated fuel-cell based system is performed. The proposed method produces smaller designs with significantly better performances than nominal power demand based approaches.optimizationman-portable powermicro fuel cellmicro SOFCintermediate-fidelity modelingtext::journal::journal article::research article