Reacting flow coupling with thermal impacts in a single solid oxide fuel cell

Tariq Nawaz Chaudhary, Umer Saleem, Baixin Chen*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

27 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Thermal impacts are the major concern for the designs of electrolyte of Solid Oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) due to the high temperature operating conditions. In this study, the coupling dynamics of electrochemical reacting flows with heat transfer and generations of thermal strains and stresses (thermal impact) of solid electrolyte and porous electrodes are investigated in a single SOFC by numerical simulations. Modeling results from a test case show that the coupling is necessary as the electrochemical and thermal properties of the cell strongly depends on temperature, meanwhile, the thermal strains and stresses on temperature gradients. The differences in current density and thermal strain gradients predicted by coupling and decoupling simulations are as larger as 20% because of the strong dependents of ionic conductivity of the electrolyte material on temperature, the maximum thermal strain, thermal stresses, and temperature are all about 5%. It is identified that the high operation voltage benefits to the thermal strain, which decreases 20% when the cell operating from 0.5 V–0.7 V.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)8425-8438
Number of pages14
JournalInternational Journal of Hydrogen Energy
Volume44
Issue number16
Early online date7 Mar 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 29 Mar 2019

Keywords

  • Cell performance
  • CFD model
  • Coupling
  • Solid oxide fuel cell
  • Temperature
  • Thermal strains and stresses

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
  • Fuel Technology
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Energy Engineering and Power Technology

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Reacting flow coupling with thermal impacts in a single solid oxide fuel cell'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this