Development of Large-Scale and Quasi Multi-Physics Model for Whole Structure of the Typical Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Stacks

Abstract

Although the performance and corresponding manufacturing technology of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) units have greatly improved and have met commercial requirements over the past decades, they are constructed such that they perform poorly and lack strong duration outputs. Therefore, achieving high performance and extending duration at a stack level are challenges faced by the development process. This paper develops a large-scale and multiphysics model for the complete structure of a typical 10-cell SOFC stack. It includes solid components, flow paths, and porous sections—solid ribs, interconnectors, anode support, anode function layer, electrolyte layer, cathode layer, air/fuel feed manifolds, feed header, rib channels, exhaust header and outlet manifolds. The multiphysics application includes momentum, mass, energy and quasi electrochemical transporting; and their mutual coupling processes within the stack. This new model can help us understand the working specifics of the large-scale stack, obtaining distribution details of static pressure, species fraction, and temperature gradient; further addressing optimization of structure and operation parameters. These details serve as guidelines for practical structural designs and parameters in real stack levels.

Optimizing Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Performance to Re-evaluate Its Role in the Mobility Sector

“…The properties of the silica-based lightweight microporous insulation board Promalight-1000X, which is wrapped around the stacks and around the hot box and burner when the extended heat loss model is solved (section S1.5), are listed in Table . Stack power densities are calculated without consideration of top and bottom compression plates, but they contain, though they are not modeled explicitly (see Section ), the volume required for the gas manifolds of 1 cm width adjacent to the stack inlets and outlets. , Figure illustrates a front view of the final ASC and MSC RU designs, while Figure b provides a cut-away view of the thermally insulated MSC stack.…”

“…Stack power densities are calculated without consideration of top and bottom compression plates, 20 but they contain, though they are not modeled explicitly (see Section 2.1), the volume required for the gas manifolds of 1 cm width adjacent to the stack inlets and outlets. 102,103 Figure 7 illustrates a front view of the final ASC and MSC RU designs, while Figure 1b provides a cut-away view of the thermally insulated MSC stack. Prior to the system analysis, the microstructural parameter setup defining the different electrode morphologies needs to be established.…”

High Temperature Solid Oxide Electrolysis – Technology and Modeling

“…Mass flow distribution depending on the manifold design is investigated for planar cell stacks [237,239] and tubular stacks [238]. Using 3D stack models, a reasonable uniform mass flow rate is confirmed in [191], while [139,202] find a maldistribution over the height of the stack.…”

“…It is implemented in about every model. Depending on the resolution and homogenization level of a model, reaction heat is either attributed to the interface between electrode and electrolyte [51,60], the entire electrode volume [58,62,76,83,85,91,92,142,143,193,199,202] or to the whole cell domain [46,52,68,80,81,89,137,139,203].…”

“…Mass flow uniformity between channels of a cell layer and geometrical influences thereon are examined by [202,214,236]. Mass flow distribution depending on the manifold design is investigated for planar cell stacks [237,239] and tubular stacks [238].…”