Multidimensional flow, thermal, and chemical behavior in solid-oxide fuel cell button cells

Graham M. Goldin*, Huayang Zhu, Robert J. Kee, David Bierschenk, Scott A. Barnett

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

54 Scopus citations

Abstract

The quantitative analysis and interpretation of button-cell experiments usually depends upon assuming isothermal conditions together with uniform and known gas composition within the gas compartments. An objective of the present effort is to develop computational tools to study the validity of such assumptions. A three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is developed and applied to a particular SOFC button cell, characterizing the fluid flow, chemistry, and thermal transport. Results show that when inlet flow rates are sufficiently high, button-cell data can be interpreted using the commonly used assumptions. However, when flow rates are not sufficient, the assumptions of uniform composition can be significantly violated. Additionally, depending on operating conditions there can be significant temperature variations within the gas compartments and the membrane-electrode assembly.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)123-135
Number of pages13
JournalJournal of Power Sources
Volume187
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 1 2009

Funding

This work at the Colorado School of Mines and Ansys/Fluent was supported by the Office of Naval Research through a Research Tools Consortium grant number N00014-05-1-0339. The effort at Northwestern University was supported by the Department of Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory under Award Number DE-FC26-05NT42625. We gratefully acknowledge the collaboration with Prof. David Goodwin (Caltech) for his assistance in integrating C antera into these simulations.

Keywords

  • Button cell
  • Computational fluid dynamics
  • Modeling
  • SOFC

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
  • Energy Engineering and Power Technology
  • Physical and Theoretical Chemistry
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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