Numerical Modeling and Simulation of the Solid Oxide Cell Stacks and Metal Interconnect Oxidation with OpenFOAM

Shangzhe Yu, Shidong Zhang (), Dominik Schäfer, Roland Peters, Felix Kunz and Rüdiger-A. Eichel
Additional contact information
Shangzhe Yu: Institute of Energy and Climate Research, Fundamental Electrochemistry (IEK-9), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, D-52425 Jülich, Germany
Shidong Zhang: Institute of Energy and Climate Research, Fundamental Electrochemistry (IEK-9), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, D-52425 Jülich, Germany
Dominik Schäfer: Institute of Energy and Climate Research, Fundamental Electrochemistry (IEK-9), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, D-52425 Jülich, Germany
Roland Peters: Institute of Energy and Climate Research, Fundamental Electrochemistry (IEK-9), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, D-52425 Jülich, Germany
Felix Kunz: Institute of Energy and Climate Research, Fundamental Electrochemistry (IEK-9), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, D-52425 Jülich, Germany
Rüdiger-A. Eichel: Institute of Energy and Climate Research, Fundamental Electrochemistry (IEK-9), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, D-52425 Jülich, Germany

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 9, 1-22

Abstract: Solid oxide cells are capable of efficiently converting various chemical energy carriers to electricity and vice versa. The urgent challenge nowadays is the faster degradation rate compared with other fuel cell/electrolyzer technologies. To understand the degradation mechanisms, simulation of a solid oxide cell is helpful. Since most previous research developed models using commercial software, such as COMSOL and ANSYS Fluent, a gap for knowledge transfer is being gradually formed between academia and industry due to licensing issues. This paper introduces a multiphysics model, developed by a computational code, openFuelCell2. The code is implemented with an open-source library, OpenFOAM. It accounts for momentum transfer, mass transfer, electrochemical reactions and metal interconnect oxidation. The model can precisely predict I–V curves under different temperatures, fuel humidity and operation modes. Comparison between OpenFOAM and COMSOL simulations shows good agreement. The metal interconnect oxidation is modeled, which can predict the thickness of the oxide scale under different protective coatings. Simulations are conducted by assuming an ultra-thin film resistance on the rib surface. It is revealed that coatings fabricated by atmospheric plasma spraying can efficiently prevent metal interconnect oxidation, with a contribution of only 0.53 % to the total degradation rate.

Keywords: solid oxide cell; multiphysics modeling; OpenFOAM; openFuelCell2; metal interconnect oxidation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/9/3827/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/9/3827/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:9:p:3827-:d:1136528

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().