PNNL

Abstract

Numerical experiments to study the effects of geometry, material properties, operational parameters, and thermal-mechanical loading on SOFC performance have long been used to supplement the physical experiments used in testing, development, and optimization of SOFC stacks. Such computations with representative baseline designs, validated by experimental data, have provided better understanding of the stack behavior while reducing the number of these costly and time-consuming experiments. The simulation tool SOFC-MP was developed to model the coupled physics associated with an SOFC stack. This modeling tool combines the versatility of a commercial multi-physics code and a validated electrochemistry calculation routine to predict the gas flow distributions, current distribution, temperature field, and power output for stack-level simulations. The fundamental building blocks of the modeling and simulation tools are electrochemical models, heat and mass transfer simulations, computational mechanics, and experimental data. The tool is available both as a 2D version which is used to rapidly predict performance of tall symmetric stacks and as a 3D version to predict performance of fully-detailed realistic cell and stack geometries. The tool can be used standalone for stack engineering analysis to study operating conditions and the effects on power output, utilizations, temperatures, and temperature gradients. The 3D tool can also be coupled with a commercial finite element code such as MSC MARC to evaluate structural integrity based on the predicted temperature field. The accomplishments from the previous year include: • Released a new version of the 2D SOFC-MP modeling code with demonstration models. • Created a user manual for 2D SOFC-MP with demonstration cases. • Performed parametric studies using 2D SOFC-MP to evaluate different approaches for minimizing thermal gradients in tall stacks. • Created a road map to develop an improved framework for the 3D SOFC-MP including a new pre-processing GUI, translators to interface with common FEA solvers, and a post-processing viewer using ParaView. • Continued to promote and support the use of SOFC-MP and Mentat-FC software packages with industry teams and CTP members for modeling and development of SOFC stacks.