Comparative finite element analysis of the stress–strain states in three different bonded solid oxide fuel cell seal designs

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. A second critical issue is ensuring that the brittle ceramic cell constituents, i.e. the electrodes and electrolyte, exhibit high mechanical reliability by mitigating potential sources of thermal-mechanically induced stresses that can lead to fracture during operation and/or shutdown. A foil-based sealing approach is currently being developed that appears to offer good hermeticity and mechanical integrity, while minimizing the generation of high stresses in either of the joint's substrate materials. Based on the concept's viability, demonstrated in prior experimental work, numerical analyses were conducted to evaluate the behavior and benefits of the seal in a configuration prototypic of current pSOFC stack designs. This paper presents recent results from finite element (FE) simulations of a planar cell using the foil-based seal, along with companion analyses of the more conventionally employed glass-ceramic and brazed joints. The stresses and deformations of the components were evaluated at isothermal operating and shutdown temperatures. The results indicate that the foil seal is able to accommodate a significant degree of thermal mismatch strain between the metallic support structure and the ceramic cell via elastic deformations of the foil and plasticity in the foil-to-cell braze layer. Consequently the cell stresses in this type of seal are predicted to be much lower than those in the glass-ceramic and brazed designs, which is expected to lead to improved stack reliability. This ability to accommodate large thermal strain mismatches allows the design requirement of thermal expansion matching between ceramic and metal stack components to be relaxed and expands the list of candidate materials that can be considered for the metal frames and interconnects.