Analysis of Microscopic Anode Structure Effects on an Anode-Supported SOFC Including Knudsen Diffusion

In this study a two dimensional CFD (COMSOL Multiphysics) is employed to study the effect of anode microscopic structures on the transport phenomena and reactions for an anode-supported solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). FCs can be considered as energy devices, involving multiple processes, such as (electro-) chemical reactions, heat exchange, gas- and ionic transport. All these complex processes are strongly integrated, needing modeling as an important tool to understand the couplings between mass-, heat-, momentum transport and chemical reactions. For the porous material, the Knudsen diffusion is taken into account in this study. The chemical- and electrochemical reaction rates depend on temperature, material structure, catalytic activity, degradation and partial pressure among others. It is found that the anode thickness and also the anode pore size need to be optimized to achieve high cell efficiency, when the Knudsen diffusion effects are included.