Conditional generative adversarial network for generation of three-dimensional porous structure of solid oxide fuel cell anodes with controlled volume fractions

A structure generation model based on a generative adversarial network (GAN) is developed to synthesize artificial porous microstructures of solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) anodes. Different from the conventional framework of GANs, additional training is performed for the generator to control statistical parameters, namely, volume fractions, of the generated structures. The developed model is validated by comparing the synthesized structures with the real electrode microstructures obtained by three-dimensional microscopy analysis. Microstructural parameters, such as volume fraction, specific surface area, and triple-phase boundary density, are used for the comparison in addition to the visual observation. The effect of the input vector size for the generator and the definition of the loss on the ability to generate realistic structures and control the volume fractions of the structures is investigated. The developed model successfully generates realistic anode microstructures with accurately controlled volume fractions, even for compositions not included in the training datasets. It is also found that the balance between the losses influences the accuracy of the volume fraction control and diversity of the generated structures. The GAN model developed is expected to be helpful in constructing a digital twin of electrode fabrication and evaluation processes.