CFD analysis of a symmetrical planar SOFC with heterogeneous electrode properties

A comprehensive 2-D CFD model is developed to investigate bi-electrode supported cell (BSC) performance. The model takes into account the coupled complex transport phenomena of mass/heat transfer, charge (electron/ion) transport, and electrochemical reactions. The uniqueness of this modeling work is that heterogeneous electrode properties are taken into account, which includes not only linear functionally graded porosity distribution but also various nonlinear distributions in a general sense according to porous electrode features in BSC design. Extensive numerical analysis is performed to elucidate various heterogeneous porous electrode property effects on cell performance. Results indicate that cell performance is strongly dependent on porous microstructure distributions of electrodes. Among the various porosity distributions, inverse parabolic porosity distribution shows promising effects on cell performance. For a given porosity distribution of electrodes, cell performance is also dependent on operating conditions, typically fuel/gas pressure losses across the electrodes. The mathematical model developed in this paper can be utilized for high performance BSC SOFC design and optimization.