THREE-DIMENSIONAL NUMERICAL SIMULATION TOOLS FOR FRACTURE ANALYSIS IN PLANAR SOLID OXIDE FUEL CELLS (SOFCs)

A major step in future development of solid oxide fuel cells.(SOFCs) is comprehension of the relationship between critical electrochemical and thermomechanical processes and the structural failure of the fuel cells. The reported research makes use of several finite element modeling tools to gain an overall understanding of fracture in a planar cell model. In our analysis, the ANSYS finite element (FEM) software is used to create a simplified cell structure with thermally induced stresses, which is then used to determine areas of high stresses in the anode-electrolyte-cathode (PEN) layers of an anode-supported planar SOFC. Refined fracture models are analyzed using the Fracture Mechanical Analyzer (FMA) code developed at Georgia Tech, which is a post-processing program capable of calculating fracture parameters in conjunction with finite element programs. The FMA code enables prediction of both crack growth and direction of three dimensional curvilinear cracks in a PEN structure under combined thermal and mechanical loading conditions. Examples of flaws in the anode, electrolyte, and at the anode-electrolyte interface will be given to demonstrate the robustness of the FMA software and to study possible failure modes of the PEN.