Effects of Radial and Circumferential Flows on Power Density Improvements of Tubular Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

Abdellah Essaghouri, Zezhi Zeng, Bingguo Zhao, Changkun Hao, Yuping Qian, Weilin Zhuge and Yangjun Zhang ()
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Abdellah Essaghouri: State Key Laboratory of Automotive Safety and Energy, School of Vehicle and Mobility, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Zezhi Zeng: State Key Laboratory of Automotive Safety and Energy, School of Vehicle and Mobility, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Bingguo Zhao: State Key Laboratory of Automotive Safety and Energy, School of Vehicle and Mobility, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Changkun Hao: State Key Laboratory of Automotive Safety and Energy, School of Vehicle and Mobility, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Yuping Qian: State Key Laboratory of Automotive Safety and Energy, School of Vehicle and Mobility, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Weilin Zhuge: State Key Laboratory of Automotive Safety and Energy, School of Vehicle and Mobility, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Yangjun Zhang: State Key Laboratory of Automotive Safety and Energy, School of Vehicle and Mobility, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 19, 1-21

Abstract: Improving the power density of SOFC stacks will accelerate their integration into mobile applications. We developed a 3D Multiphysics model validated by experimental results from early studies to examine the effect of radial and circumferential flows on the power density improvements in a micro-tubular SOFC. The inserts were placed inside the fuel channel to generate flow in different directions. The effects of geometric parameters of these inserts on flow and mass transfer in the fuel channel and porous anode were analyzed. We demonstrate that the radial flow enables the fuel to penetrate directly into the porous anode, increasing the local fuel concentration and enhancing the fuel diffusion to the anode triple-phase boundaries. We found that the circumferential flow has a negligible effect on the diffusion process in the anode and on the increase in power density. The impact of local convective and diffusive mass transfer mechanisms on power density improvement is analyzed using the local Péclet number along the axial direction. Enlarging the radial velocity component perpendicular to the porous anode could effectively increase the power density of the micro-tubular SOFC by 37%. This study helps improve our understanding of mass transfer in fuel channels and helps build a foundation for SOFC channel designs and optimizations.

Keywords: solid oxide fuel cell; mass transfer; radial and circumferential flows; electrochemical reactions (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: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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