Empirical Simulation of the I-E Curves of a H2/Air PEM Fuel Cell at Asymmetric Relative Humidity

The present work is dedicated to study the performance of H-2/Air proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells (FC) by using an empirical modeling and experimental results at symmetric and asymmetric relative humidity. The empirical modeling is presented by Kim's equation which was used in simulating the performance of the H-2/Air PEM FC and in fitting the experimental data at different operating conditions. The simulation of the cell performance helps to understand the impacts of different kinetics, ohmic and mass-transfer resistances on the I-E curves and hence on the performance of the FC. By fitting the experimental data with the theoretical calculations, it is possible to extract important kinetics, ohmic and mass-transfer parameters at different temperatures and at different symmetric and asymmetric relative humidity. Although the exact physical meanings of some fitting parameters are quite clear, others are not.