Temperature Distribution in Planer Solid Oxide Fuel Cell

Abstract

Thermal stress induced by temperature gradient in solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is one of the key problems restricting its life. In view of the influence of the electric furnace on the experimental results in the traditional SOFC temperature distribution measurement experiment, this paper proposes a method of insulating the test cell to provide an approximately adiabatic working environment for the cell, so as to expand the experimental results to the actual stack. Using this method, the temperature distribution law in the flat SOFC single cell was experimentally studied. The experimental results show that the cell insulation can effectively reduce the heat exchange between the cell and the electric furnace. At 24 A discharge, the maximum temperature in the cell is 782 °C, 32 °C higher than that of the furnace, which proves that cell insulation can effectively reduce the influence of the electric furnace; when the discharge current is set at 18 A, 24 A and 30 A, the maximum temperature in the cell is 777 °C, 782 °C and 796 °C respectively, but all the maximum temperature differences are about 5 °C; the temperature gradient in the cell is greatly affected by the cooling effect of the intake air, but its influence range is small. Therefore, a large temperature difference will be generated locally at the gas inlet of the cell, which will affect the operational safety of the cell.

Keywords

• solid oxide fuel cell
• temperature distribution
• flow field structure
• heat transfer