Computational modeling of the transport and electrochemical phenomena in solid oxide fuel cells

A mathematical model for a planar solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) was constructed. The chemical species, the temperature distribution and the cell performance were calculated using unit model with double channels of co-flow pattern. The governing equations for mass continuity, momentum conservation, energy conservation and species conservation were discretized with the finite volume method. The equations are implemented in FORTRAN language. The water production and the hydrogen in the anode were taken into consideration in the model. The effects of the anode thickness, the operating conditions and various losses on the calculated results were investigated. Parametric analyses showed that all temperatures decreased with increasing losses. Another important finding is that the anode thickness has significant effect on gases distribution, along the main flow channel. For gas flow rate of 80.10-8 m3 s−1, the peak power density was 37508Wm−2, which was about 7.5% higher than that of 80.10-9 m3 s−1 gas flow rate. The results of this paper provide better understanding on the coupled heat/mass transfer and electrochemical reaction phenomena in an SOFC. The model developed can serve as a useful tool for SOFC design optimization