Modelling of single cell solid oxide fuel cells using COMSOL multiphysics

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) have the potential to become one of the efficient and cost effective systems for direct conversion of a wide variety of fuels to electricity. In this study, we developed a three-dimensional multiphysics model for a single cell SOFC using COMSOL multiphysics (version 5.2) software and performed simulations to examine the effect of gas flow patterns (radial flow and counter flow) in different operating temperatures (700° C, 800° C and 1000° C) for a planar anode supported SOFC. With the help of the simulation results, we have analyzed the electrical characteristics of the single cell SOFCs. From the simulation results, it is observable that the radial gas flow pattern yields higher performance compared to the counter flow pattern and the performance also increases with operating temperature of the cell.