Numerical Investigation of the Impact of the Partial Anode Channel Blockage on the Enhanced Mass Transfer and Performance of a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell

Abstract

This study aims to numerically reveal and assess the influence of inserts of different shapes partially obstructing the anode flow channel on flow characteristics, heat and mass transfer, and planar solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) performance. To this end, a lattice‐based Boltzmann method is taken. Within this setting, trapezoidal, circular, and triangular shapes and inserts’ heights have been deemed. It turns out that trapezoidal and circular obstacles increase the fuel mass transport to the anode/electrolyte interface and effectively improve the SOFC's power density. As for triangular obstacles, their impact is negligible in terms of performance. Through the findings, it can be stated that it is the trapezoidal design that is better than the other designs. Further, the effect of the inserts’ height has also been assessed to set the optimal performance. It is found that the SOFC performance increases by 4% when using five trapezoidal obstacles with a 90% blocking rate compared to the unobstructed channel. However, in the case of the circular design with five blocks and a 90% blocking rate, the power density improves only about 2.3%. To sum up, improving SOFCs’ power density by designing the anode channel can be adopted to achieve optimal operations.