The effect of coupled mass transport and internal reforming on modeling of solid oxide fuel cells part II: Benchmarking transient response and dynamic model fidelity assessment

• Direct comparison of dynamic 1-D and ‘quasi’ 2-D SOFC cell-level models.
• ‘Quasi’ 2-D SOFC model necessary for capturing highly coupled physics.
• Mass transport dynamics impact the transient electrochemical response.
• Delays in fuel and air flow rate exaggerate the importance of mass transport dynamics.

One- and ‘quasi’ two-dimensional (2-D) dynamic, interface charge transport models of a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) developed previously in a companion paper, are benchmarked against other models and simulated to evaluate the effects of coupled transport and chemistry. Because the reforming reaction can distort the concentration profiles of the species within the anode, a ‘quasi’ 2-D model that captures porous media mass transport and electrochemistry is required. The impact of a change in concentration at the triple-phase boundary is twofold wherein the local Nernst potential and anode exchange current densities are influenced, thereby altering the current density and temperature distributions of the cell. Thus, the dynamic response of the cell models are compared, and benchmarked against previous channel-level models to gauge the relative importance of capturing in-situ reforming phenomena on cell performance. Simulation results indicate differences in the transient electrochemical response for a step in current density where the ‘quasi’ 2-D model predicts a slower rise and fall in cell potential due to the additional volume of the porous media and mass transport dynamics. Delays in fuel flow rate are shown to increase the difference observed in the electrochemical response of the cells.