Transient thermal analysis plays the central role in the design and optimization of high temperature solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) during startup/shutdown, because of the potential for damaging thermal gradients to develop within the SOFC components. To this end, we consider the SOFC unit cell, which is heated by hot air supplied into the oxidizer channel at a specified, time-dependent inlet temperature. Closed-form analytical solutions are obtained for two simplified 1-D models of the SOFC unit cell: (1) purely convective heating, assuming thermally-thin cell components, and (2) convective-conductive heating, under the assumption of local thermal equilibrium in the direction normal to flow. Given thresholds of maximum allowable temperature gradients, the optimal design is one that minimizes the total time required to reach a prescribed final operating temperature. With appropriate scaling, the models we developed predict the maximum temperature gradients and heating time requirements for various operating conditions, and the results are generalized by presentation in terms of the effective cell Peclet number and inlet temperature function. Finally, these predictions are used to identify favorable trends and design rules for optimizing the transient heating process. The simplicity, computational savings, and ability to capture the essential physics of the transient process demonstrated by application of the analytical models provide compelling justification for their use over more accurate, highly detailed, numerical/CFD schemes.
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ASME 2005 Summer Heat Transfer Conference collocated with the ASME 2005 Pacific Rim Technical Conference and Exhibition on Integration and Packaging of MEMS, NEMS, and Electronic Systems
July 17–22, 2005
San Francisco, California, USA
Conference Sponsors:
- Heat Transfer Division and Electronic and Photonic Packaging Division
ISBN:
0-7918-4734-9
PROCEEDINGS PAPER
Simplified Thermal Analysis of the SOFC Transients During Startup/Shutdown Available to Purchase
David L. Damm,
David L. Damm
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
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Andrei G. Fedorov
Andrei G. Fedorov
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
Search for other works by this author on:
David L. Damm
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
Andrei G. Fedorov
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
Paper No:
HT2005-72406, pp. 17-26; 10 pages
Published Online:
March 9, 2009
Citation
Damm, DL, & Fedorov, AG. "Simplified Thermal Analysis of the SOFC Transients During Startup/Shutdown." Proceedings of the ASME 2005 Summer Heat Transfer Conference collocated with the ASME 2005 Pacific Rim Technical Conference and Exhibition on Integration and Packaging of MEMS, NEMS, and Electronic Systems. Heat Transfer: Volume 4. San Francisco, California, USA. July 17–22, 2005. pp. 17-26. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/HT2005-72406
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