PNNL

Abstract

One of the critical issues in designing and fabricating a high performance planar solid oxide fuel cell (pSOFC) stack is the development of the appropriate materials and techniques for hermetically sealing the metal and ceramic components. We are currently developing a foil-based approach that appears to offer good hermeticity and mechanical integrity, while minimizing the generation of interfacial stresses in either of the joint substrate materials, particulary the ceramic cell. Prior experimental work conducted on small-scale samples demonstrated the viability of the concept. Here we present recent results from computational analyses undertaken to investigate potential issues associated with scaling up the seal to full-scale pSOFC stack dimensions/geometry. Here we employ finite element modeling to assess the potential thermal cycling performance of this design, specifically as it pertains to sealing components with vastly different thermal expansion properties.