Effect of Gas Flow Configurations on the Performance of MOLB-type SOFC

The impact of gas flow configurations on the performance of MOLB-type SOFC was studied in this work. Three-dimensional models of MOLB-type SOFC with different gas flow configurations were developed. The distribution of temperature, hydrogen mole fraction, current density and polarizations of six gas flow configurations were discussed in detail. It's found that the temperature gradient and peak temperature of SOFC can be significantly reduced by varying the gas flow configurations, which can affect the thermal stress distribution and service life of SOFC. By changing the gas flow configurations of the SOFC, the peak temperature of the cell can be reduced by 38.9K. For counter-flow configuration, the current density distribution of SOFC is more uniform, and the average current density is greater than others. The best performance is obtained when the fuel and air flow are in contrary direction, and at the same time the gas flow direction of the upper and lower layers of cells is also opposite.