A Parameter Sensitivity Study of Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Based on One-dimensional Model

Abstract

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are promising and efficient energy conversion devices. The modeling method was widely used to study characteristics of SOFCs due to limitation of experiments. Values of material properties such as porosity, tortuosity and pore radius are required information in modeling. Current modeling works usually employ material properties used in the literature, which are not exactly measured and the values vary in wide ranges. However, inappropriate selection of material properties can result in incorrect modeling results of SOFCs. In this study, a one-dimensional model of SOFCs was established to analyze the effects of different material parameters on the modeling results. A parameter sensitivity analysis was also conducted to determine the most influential parameters on the polarization curve. The results provide a reference for selection values of SOFC material parameters. This work can also be used as a guideline to fit the experimental polarization curve in numerical simulations by adjusting appropriate material parameters.