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# System-Level Dynamic Modeling and Cross-Domain Disturbance Propagation of an Electricity–Hydrogen–Heat Coupling Subsystem for Integrated Transportation Hubs

## Details

**Authors** Dengrui Zhu, Xueqin Zhang, Junhao Liang, Guoqiang Gao, Song Xiao, Yujun Guo, Hanbing Yang, Aoxu Feng, Aihong Tang, Guangning Wu

**Year** 2026

**Publisher** Energies

**Kind of work** article

**Discipline** Engineering

**Secondary disciplines** Operations Research

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.3390/en19184313) 
10.3390/en19184313

## In authors' words

### Abstract

Integrated transportation hubs are characterized by fast-varying and strongly coupled electricity, hydrogen-refueling, and thermal demands driven by traffic activities. To characterize their short-term dynamic interactions, this paper develops a compact system-level model of a core electricity–hydrogen–heat coupling subsystem comprising a PEM electrolyzer, a hydrogen storage tank, a fuel cell, and a thermal side. Power- and temperature-dependent off-design models are established for the PEM electrolyzer and fuel cell, while a lumped-parameter thermodynamic model with real-gas correction is developed for the hydrogen storage tank. The electrolyzer and fuel-cell models achieve calibration MAPEs of 0.39% and approximately 0.81%, respectively, against published reference data. Two typical disturbance scenarios are then investigated. Under a 30 kW electrical-load step, the grid-power deviation is reduced from a peak of approximately 29.4 kW to about 9.1 kW, while the hydrogen-refueling-demand disturbance produces only a minor thermal-side temperature variation. The results reveal distinct propagation magnitudes and time-scale characteristics across the electrical, hydrogen, and thermal domains. The proposed framework provides a compact and physically interpretable tool for short-term cross-domain dynamic analysis of integrated transportation hubs.

### What they set out to do (purpose)

To build a system-level model capturing how electricity, hydrogen, and heat subsystems in a transportation hub dynamically interact under disturbances.

### Who or what was studied (sample)

Not human or animal: a physically modeled engineering subsystem (PEM electrolyzer, hydrogen tank, fuel cell, thermal side), calibrated against published reference datasets.

### How they did it (methods)

Off-design physical/thermodynamic modeling of each component plus simulation of two disturbance scenarios (an electrical load step and a hydrogen-refueling demand step).

### What they found (results)

A 30 kW electrical-load-step disturbance was damped from a peak grid-power deviation of about 29.4 kW down to about 9.1 kW by the coupled subsystem, whereas a hydrogen-refueling-demand disturbance produced only a minor thermal-side temperature change, showing the same physical coupling propagates disturbances with markedly different magnitude and time scale depending on which subsystem originates it.

## Commentary

### In short

The hub's overall dynamic behavior is shown to emerge from how its constituent subsystems are assembled into a whole and from the causal coupling relationships that determine how a disturbance in one part propagates, at its own magnitude and time scale, into the others.

**Patterns it shows** S, R

Formal proof or model, Shows it makes a difference

**Added** 2026-09-17

**How to cite this** Dengrui Zhu, Xueqin Zhang, Junhao Liang, Guoqiang Gao, Song Xiao, Yujun Guo, Hanbing Yang, Aoxu Feng, Aihong Tang, Guangning Wu (2026). System-Level Dynamic Modeling and Cross-Domain Disturbance Propagation of an Electricity–Hydrogen–Heat Coupling Subsystem for Integrated Transportation Hubs. Energies.