Simulation Study on the Effects of Operating Temperature on Cell Electrodes in Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

Abstract

In this study, a three−dimensional numerical simulation on electrodes in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) is investigated in both regular cell and button cell configurations. The cell unit models with a regular cell with an active area of 5cm × 5cm and with a button cell with an active area of 2.54 cm2 were conducted to investigate the voltage distribution on cell electrodes in the solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). The performance characteristics in SOFC cell unit are determined through a numerical simulation method by using a computational fluid dynamic (CFD). The COMSOL Multiphysics software is used to investigate the model. The results show that the cell voltage in both regular cell and button cell with operating temperatures of 650 and 700 °C were lower than those at 750 °C. This means that when the operating temperature increases, the voltage and current density on the solid oxide fuel cell electrodes increases, and the performance of the cell is also improved.