Modeling and identification of a PEM fuel cell humidification system

A theoretical model of a humidifier of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell systems is developed and analyzed first in this paper. The model shows that there exists a strong nonlinearity in the system. Then, the system is identified using a wavelet networks method. To avoid the curse-of-dimensionality problem, a class of wavelet networks proposed by Billings is employed. The experimental data acquired from the test bench are used for identification. The one-step-ahead predictions and the five-step-ahead predictions are compared with the real measurements, respectively. It shows that the identified model can effectively describe the real system.