Modeling and temperature distribution analysis of a single cell in cross-flow planar solid oxide fuel cell

Abstract

The solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is a new energy power system. For the planar solid oxide fuel cells, the temperature distribution in a single cell is essential to the normal operation of a stack as well as the entire system. In order to estimate the temperature distribution in the cross-flow planar SOFC, this paper established a SOFC temperature field model in the matlab/simulink platform according to the chemical mechanism of the power generation process. The temperature distributions of a single cell are obtained through simulation and the results show that the temperature distributions of PEN, fuel and air approximately decrease along the fuel flow direction and increase along the air flow direction. Consequently, an experiment is conducted to measure the temperatures of five points in the cell. In this way the air temperature distribution along the air flow direction can be identified and is also consistent with the simulation result, which demonstrate the validity of modeling and analysis in this paper.