• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.41 no.10
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• pp.667-673
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• 2017

We investigated the temperature uniformity in an anode-supported solid oxide fuel cell, using the open source computational fluid dynamics (CFD) toolbox, OpenFOAM. Numerical simulation was performed in three different flow paths, i.e., co-flow, counter-flow, and cross-flow paths. Gas flow in a porous electrode was calculated using effective diffusivity while considering the effect of interconnect rib. A lumped internal resistance model derived from a semi-empirical correlation was implemented for the calculation of electrochemical reaction. The result showed that the counter-flow path displayed the most uniform temperature distribution.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.172-181
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• 2015

Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC) continue to be among the most promising alternative energy devices. This paper addresses i-V characteristics of SOFC with a focus on air flow rate along the planar anode electrodes. To address this, detailed Butler-Volmer kinetics are implemented in a general-purpose CFD code FLUENT. The numerical results were validated against experimental data from the literature showing excellent match with i-V polarization data ranging 1V-0.4V. Numerical calculations of fuel cell operation under different flow rare conditions were performed in three-dimensional geometries. Results are presented in terms of concentration distribution of hydrogen, oxygen, and water. The simulations and results indicate that advanced CFD with UDF(User-Defined Function) of Butler-Volmer kinetics can be used to identify the conditions leading to air flow rate and specific surface area and guide development of operating conditions and improve the fuel cell system performance.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.647-647
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• 2005

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.27 no.12
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• pp.866-870
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• 2014

In solid oxide fuel cell system, yttria-stabilized zirconia is generally adopted as the electrolyte, which has high strength and superior oxygen ion conductivity, and the air electrode and the fuel electrode are attached to this. Recently, new structure of 'layered planar SOFC module' was suggested to solve the reliability problem due to the high temperature stability of a sealing agent and a binding material. In this study to materialize the air electrode in a layered planar SOFC module, the LSM ink was coated to form homogeneous electrode in the channel after the ink preparation. As the porosity control agent, PMMA or active carbon powder was adopted with use of a commercial dispersant in ethanol. The optimal amounts of both the porosity control agents and the dispersant were determined. Four (4) vol% of the dispersant for the LSM-PMMA case and 15 vol% for LSM-carbon powder showed the lowest viscosities respectively to indicate the best dispersed states of the slurries. With PMMA and carbon powder, sintered LSM ink shows the relatively homogeneous distributions of pores and with increases of the agents, the porosities increased in both cases. From this, it can be thought that the amount of the PMMA or carbon powder could be used to control the porosity of the LSM ink.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.109-115
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• 2017

Using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique, we performed a numerical simulation in anodesupported solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). The effect of gas channel/rib width on the cell performance and temperature uniformity was investigated in planar type SOFC. The open source CFD toolbox, OpenFOAM, was used as a numerical analysis tool. As a result, the effect of gas channel/rib width on the cell performance and temperature uniformity was not significant if the oxygen depletion is not occurring. On the other hand, the usage of a wide rib and operation at high current density may lead to performance degradation due to oxygen depletion.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.196-204
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• 2023

This study performed the numerical analysis of the internal flow phenomena of 1 kWe-class solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) stacks with internal manifold type and planar cells using commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software, Star-CCM+. In particular, the locations where the turbulent phenomena occur inside the SOFC stack were investigated. In addition, the laminar flow model and the standard k-ε turbulent model were used to calculate the SOFC stack, separately. And, the calculation results of both laminar and turbulent models were compared. The calculation results showed that turbulent phenomena occurred mainly in the cathode flow. Especially, the turbulent phenomena were found in the cathode inlet/outlet region, and local turbulence occurred in the end plate near the inlet pipe.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.44 no.12
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• pp.720-726
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• 2007

Current collectors of SOFC play a significant role on the performance of power generation. In this study a single cell stacked SOFC was assembled using Ag-mesh as a cathode current collector, and evaluated its performance. No gas leakages of the single cell stack occurred in the tests of gas detection and OCV measurement. The OCV and initial power of the stack were 1.09V and $0.45W/cm^2$, respectively, under the flow rates of air at 2,500 cc/min and $H_2$ at 1,000 cc/min at the test temperature of $750^{\circ}C$. A degradation rate of 44.0% was measured during the prolonged time of 307 h. The relatively low durability of the tested single cell stack was found to be the evaporation of Ag-mesh at the current corrector.

• The Korean Journal of Ceramics
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.336-340
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• 1999

Glasses in the system $CaO-TiO_2-SiO_2-Al_2O_3-ZrO_2-B_2O_3$ were investigated to find the glass seal compositions suitable for use in the planar solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). Glass-ceramics prepared from the glasses by one-stage heat treatment at $1,000^{\circ}C$ showed various thermal expansion coefficients (i,e., $8.6\times10^{-6^{\circ}}C^{-1}$ to $42.7\times10^{-6^{\circ}}C^{-1}$ in the range 25-$1,000^{\circ}C$) due to the viscoelastic response of glass phase. The average values of contact angles between the zirconia substrate and the glass particles heated at 1,000-$1,200^{\circ}C$ were in the range of $131^{\circ}\pm4^{\circ}$~$137^{\circ}\pm9^{\circ}$, indicating that the glass-ceramic was in partial non-wetting condition with the zirconia substrate. With increasing heat treatment time of glass samples from 0.5 to 24 h at $1,100^{\circ}C$, the DC electrical conductivity of the resultant glass-ceramics decreased from at $800^{\circ}C$. Isothermal hold of the glass sample at $1100^{\circ}C$ for 48h resulted in diffusion of Ca, Si, and Al ions from glass phase into the zirconia substrate through the glass/zirconia bonding interface. Glass phase and diffusion of the moving ion such as $Ca^{2+}$ in glass phase is responsible for the electrical conduction in the glass-ceramics.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.5-9
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• 2013

Recently, eco-friendly sources of energy by fuel cells that use hydrogen as an energy source has emerged as the next generation of energy to solve the problem of environmental issues and exhaustion of energy. A solid oxide fuel cell(SOFC) classified based on the type of ion transfer mediator electrolyte has actively being researched. However, the reliability according to the thermal cycle is low during the operation of the fuel cell, and deformation problem comes from the difference in thermal expansion coefficient between the electrode material, the components made of ceramic material is also brittle, which means disadvantages in terms of the strength. Therefore, in this study, considering the states of the manufacturing and operating of SOFC single cells, the stress analyses in the each of the interfacial layer between the anode, electrolyte and the cathode were performed to get the basic data for reliability assessment of SOFC. The obtained results show that von Mises stress according to the thickness direction on operating state occurred maximum stress value in the electrolyte layer. And also the stresses inside the active area on a distance of 1 ${\mu}m$ from the electrode interface were estimated. Futhermore the evaluation was done for the variation of the stress according to the stage of the operation divided into three stages of manufacturing, stack, and operating.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.384-389
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• 2009

KEPRI (Korea Electric Power Research Institute) has studied planar type solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) stacks using anode-supported cells and kW class co-generation systems for residential power generation. In this work, a 1 kW SOFC system consisted of a hot box part, a cold BOP (balance of plant) part, and a hot water reservoir. The hot box part contained a SOFC stack made up of 48 cells, a fuel reformer, a catalytic combustor, and heat exchangers. Thermal management and insulation system were especially designed for self-sustainable operation in that system. A cold BOP part was composed of blowers, pumps, a water trap, and system control units. When the 1 kW SOFC stack was tested using hydrogen at $750^{\circ}C$, the stack power was about $1.2\;kW_e$ at 30 A and $1.6\;kW_e$ at 50 A. Turning off an electric furnace, the SOFC system was operated using hydrogen and city gas without any external heat source. Under self-sustainable operation conditions, the stack power was about $1.3\;kW_e$ with hydrogen and $1.2\;kW_e$ with city gas respectively. The system also recuperated heat of about $1.1\;kW_{th}$ by making hot water.