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A Study on the Estimation of Homogeneous Physical Properties of Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell Stacks

용융탄산염형 연료전지 스택의 균질 물성치 추정에 관한 연구

  • Lee, Sang-Wook (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Soonchunhyang University) ;
  • Suh, Yong-S. (Department of Mechanical Engineering, California State University)
  • 이상욱 (순천향대학교 기계공학과) ;
  • 서용석 (캘리포니아 세크라멘토 주립대학교 기계공학과)
  • Received : 2011.05.06
  • Accepted : 2011.07.07
  • Published : 2011.07.31

Abstract

The performance and efficiency of a Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell system will improve with the aids of numerical simulations such as finite element analysis. For best simulation results, the virtual model must accurately reflect the actual model including the material properties. It is very difficult, however, to make a detailed numerical model of the stack that consists of hundreds of layers of unit cells composed of various materials like metal, ceramics, polymer, etc. Instead, a practical approach is to find a homogenized material property of the stack as a whole as an approximate replacement. In this paper, the compression ratio of a unit cell is introduced, and a new method is proposed to estimate the homogeneous material properties for both the active and the manifold regions of the stack under the assumption that the compressive deformation occurs only at the separators and matrices in the unit cells. The estimated properties are applied successfully to simulating an actual stack.

용융탄산염형 연료전지 시스템의 성능 향상을 위해 핵심 부분인 스택을 수치적으로 모사할 필요성이 대두되고 있다. 스택은 다양한 재질, 즉 금속, 세라믹, 폴리머 등으로 이루어져 있고 또한 단위전지 수백 장이 적층되어 제작되기 때문에 이를 전부 세세히 모델링하여 고려하는 것은 거의 불가능하다. 이에 따라 스택 전체를 하나의 균질한 물질로 대체할 수 있는 균질 물성치 도출이 요구되고 있다. 본 논문에서는 단위전지 압축률을 도입하고 모든 압축 변형이 분리판과 매트릭스에서만 일어난다는 등의 몇 가지 기본 가정 하에서 스택의 두 가지 영역, 즉 활성 영역과 매니폴드 영역에서 각각 균질 물성치를 추정하였다. 추정된 물성치를 실제 문제에 적용하여 성공적인 결과를 얻을 수 있었다.

Keywords

References

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