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Significance of Aspect Ratio Parameter on a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell with Rectangular, Trapezoidal, and Triangular Obstacles in the Flow Channel

  • Research Article-Chemical Engineering
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Abstract

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are a source of renewable and economical energy production. The present study focused on investigating the effect of changing the size of the obstacles on cell performance by placing obstacles into the flow channel and defining the aspect ratio parameter that indicates the height of the obstacle to that of the flow channel. For rectangular obstacles with the values of one, nine-tenths, seven-tenths, and a half of the aspect ratio (AR) parameter at a voltage of 0.8 V, the output power improved by 40, 18, 13.7, and 13.2% compared to the unobstructed flow channel (reference state). At the same voltage, the current density improved by 10, 9.76, and 9.64 for the values of nine-tenths, seven-tenths, and a half of the AR parameter for triangular obstacles, respectively. Further, it improved by 20.2, 19.7, and 19.3% for trapezoidal obstacles compared to the reference model. Therefore, the output power is maximized when the rectangular obstacles completely cover the flow channel.

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Abbreviations

F:

Faraday’s constant which is about 96, 500 \((c/mol)\)

F:

Volume force (vector) \((N/m^{3} )\)

\(c_{p}\) :

Fluid heat capacity when pressure is constant \((j/kgk)\)

\(M_{i}\) :

Molar mass for species I \((kg/mol)\)

a, b, m:

Exponents

\(G_{m}\) :

The popular Gibbs energy (J/mol)

\(Q_{a}\) :

Current term (source or sink) for anode \((A/m^{2} )\)

\(R_{i}\) :

Rate expression (production, consumption) \((kg/m^{3} .s)\)

\(S_{m}\) :

Entropy change (J/mol. K)

\(Q_{m}\) :

Heat generated by electrochemical reaction \((W/m^{3} )\)

I :

Current density)vector( \(({\text{A}}/{\text{m}}^{2} )\)

\(E^{O}_{{H_{2} /O_{2} }}\) :

Open-circuit voltage when pressure is 1 atm \((V)\)

\(Q_{br}\) :

Mass that would be related to source or sink \((kg/m^{3} .s)\)

\(d_{ref}\) :

Reference diffusivity \((m^{2} /s)\)

\(Q_{h}\) :

Heat that would be related to source or sink \((W/m^{3} )\)

x,y,z:

The popular Cartesian coordinates

К:

Describe permeability tensor for porous medium (\(m^{2}\))

\(\phi_{ele}\) :

Electronic potential (V)

u:

Average velocity of mass (m/s)

\(E_{A,a}\) :

Activation energy (J/mol)

\(c_{i}\) :

Molar concentration \((mol/m^{3} )\)

A, C, E:

Anode, cathode, electrolyte

eq:

Subscript for equilibrium

\(\phi\) :

Electrical potential (V)

\(\partial\) :

Conductivity (effective) (S/m)

SOFC:

Abbreviation for solid oxide fuel cells

\(\Delta_{eq}\) :

Potential difference (equilibrium) (V)

\((\rho c_{p} )_{eq}\) :

Balanced volumetric heat capacity when pressure is constant \((J/m^{3} .k)\)

\(Q_{c}\) :

Current term (source or sink) for cathode -\((A/m^{2} )\)

T :

Temperature (absolute)-(K)

D:

Abbreviation for dimension

\(\phi_{ion}\) :

Ionic potential (V)

\(H_{m}\) :

Reaction enthalpy change (J/mol)

CFD:

Abbreviation for computational fluid dynamics

\(\mu\) :

Viscosity (dynamic) (Pa. s)

\(Q_{e}\) :

Current density term for electrolyte (source or sink) \(({\text{A}}/{\text{m}}^{2} )\)

\(D^{T}_{i}\) :

Thermal diffusion coefficient (kg/m. s)

\(\nu\) :

Describe molecular diffusion volume \(({\text{cm}}^{3} /{\text{mol}})\)

m:

Index m (for describing reaction)

ele:

Subscript for electronic

\(\eta\) :

Describe overpotential (V)

R:

Global gas constant that is 8.31 (J/mol. K)

\(D_{ik}\) :

Multicomponent Maxwell–Stefan diffusivity \(({\text{m}}^{2} /{\text{s}})\)

\(\gamma\) :

Temperature-dependent prefactor

x:

Describe molar fraction

\(j_{i}\) :

Mass flux related to average velocity of mass \(({\text{kg}}/{\text{m}}^{2} .s)\)

\(V_{cell}\) :

Voltage of cell (V)

OCV:

Abbreviation for open-circuit voltage

\(c_{i,ref}\) :

Reference molar concentration \(({\text{mol}}/{\text{m}}^{3} )\)

\(Q_{JH}\) :

Ohmic heating \(({\text{W}}/{\text{m}}^{3} )\)

G:

Abbreviation for generation

\(k_{eq}\) :

Thermal conductivity (equivalent) (W/m. K)

\(\omega_{i}\) :

Mass fraction (for species i)

I:

The popular unit matrix

ion:

Subscript for ionic

\(p_{i}\) :

Partial pressure related to species i at TPB region (Pa)

\(\varepsilon\) :

Porosity

I, J, K:

Species I, j, k

P:

Pressure (Pa)

\(\rho\) :

Density \(({\text{kg}}/{\text{m}}^{3} )\)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, Shahid Beheshti University A.C., Tehran, Iran

    M. Choroomzadeh & I. Khazaee

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  1. M. Choroomzadeh
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  2. I. Khazaee
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Correspondence to M. Choroomzadeh.

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The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Appendices

Appendix 1

See Table

Table 5 Appendix 1
Full size table

5

Appendix 2

See Fig.

Fig. 13
figure 13

Linear regression diagram for the data points in Fig. 5

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13

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Choroomzadeh, M., Khazaee, I. Significance of Aspect Ratio Parameter on a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell with Rectangular, Trapezoidal, and Triangular Obstacles in the Flow Channel. Arab J Sci Eng 48, 8595–8611 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-022-07226-1

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