Influence of Radial Flows on Power Density and Gas Stream Pressure Drop 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 21, 1-21

Abstract: The development of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) for powering vehicles requires high power densities. The radial flows generated by the insert structures in SOFC fuel channels could improve the power density by facilitating the fuel to enter the porous anode for electrochemical reactions. In this paper, we developed a 2D axisymmetric numerical model to examine the influence of a convergent conical ring insert on the flow and mass transfer characteristics in a tubular SOFC. The mass transfer conductance of fuel was analyzed and proposed to quantify the performance of different insert designs. The effects of the radius and offset angle of the convergent conical ring insert were examined and analyzed. We demonstrate that increasing the insert radius could increase the fuel mass transfer conductance and effectively improve the net output power of the tubular SOFC by 12% while the offset angle of the inserts exhibits a negligible impact on the fuel mass transfer conductance. Increasing the offset angle could help reduce the gas-phase pressure drop in fuel channels by 42%. The present study helps improve our understanding of the relationship between fuel mass transfer conductance and electrochemical reactions. It also proposes channel design methods based on mass transfer conductance for high-power-density solid oxide fuel cells.

Keywords: solid oxide fuel cell; radial flow; mass transfer; electrochemical reactions; power density (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
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