Reacting flow coupling with thermal impacts in a single solid oxide fuel cell

Abstract Thermal impacts are the major concern for the designs of electrolyte of Solid Oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) due to the high temperature operating conditions. In this study, the coupling dynamics of electrochemical reacting flows with heat transfer and generations of thermal strains and stresses (thermal impact) of solid electrolyte and porous electrodes are investigated in a single SOFC by numerical simulations. Modeling results from a test case show that the coupling is necessary as the electrochemical and thermal properties of the cell strongly depends on temperature, meanwhile, the thermal strains and stresses on temperature gradients. The differences in current density and thermal strain gradients predicted by coupling and decoupling simulations are as larger as 20% because of the strong dependents of ionic conductivity of the electrolyte material on temperature, the maximum thermal strain, thermal stresses, and temperature are all about 5%. It is identified that the high operation voltage benefits to the thermal strain, which decreases 20% when the cell operating from 0.5 V–0.7 V.