Analytical study of effective parameters in performance of tubular solid oxide fuel cells

作者：Mirahmadi A; Valefi K^*

来源：Journal of the Energy Institute, 2013, 86(1).

DOI：10.1179/1743967112Z.00000000039

• Tubular SOFC
• Activation loss
• Concentration polarisation
• Thermal effect
• Modelling

In this paper, numerical modelling of tubular solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) is presented. The developed model is used to study effective parameters in the performance of a tubular SOFC. The effects of temperature distribution and geometric parameters, such as electrolyte thickness, electrodes porosity and electrodes volumetric surface area, are investigated through numerical simulations. Aside from the direct effect of temperature field, geometrical parameter changes also contribute to temperature originated cell performance by virtue of their influence on heat transfer and electrochemical behaviours. The electrolyte ohmic loss is adversely varied by the cell current density, which is a result of the effect of temperature on electrolyte ionic conductivity. The cell concentration loss is increasing with the cell average current density in less porous electrodes. However, when enough excess air is supplied to the air channel, in electrodes with higher porosities, the concentration loss will be decreasing at higher cell average current densities, which is due to the increased convective mass fluxes in the air channel. The increase of the electrode volumetric surface area has an adverse effect on the cell reaction loss.

• 出版日期2013-2