External humidification using membrane humidifiers is an attractive technology used in controlling the humidity of proton-exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) systems. Membrane humidifiers operate under passive conditions, requiring no external power, and are easily scalable to meet the humidity demand of a PEMFC stack.
In this thesis, a dynamic model of a gas-to-gas planar membrane humidifier is developed and integrated with an experimentally validated PEMFC model. An optimization framework is also proposed and used to determine the appropriate size of the membrane humidifier to be integrated with a given PEMFC stack, such that the performance of the stack is optimized. Subsequently, dynamic simulations are performed to analyze the performance of the optimally sized humidifier/PEMFC stack pair using different drive cycles.Mechanical Engineerin
