Analysis of anode functional layer for minimizing thermal stress in solid oxide fuel cell

Two-dimensional (2D) model is used to analyze the thermo-mechanical behavior of anode-supported solid oxide fuel cell for a given thermal loading. In order to reduce the thermal stress generated during the preparation and operation of solid oxide fuel cell, the optimized anode functional layer is introduced into solid oxide fuel cell. In this work, based on the hierarchical model theory, the anode functional layer is divided into several sub-layers. The thickness and NiO volume fraction of each sub-layer gradient change and are controlled by non-linear thickness gradient exponent and non-linear composition gradient exponent, respectively. The optimization schemes are obtained to minimize the anode axial stress, the electrolyte compressive stress and the layer interface stress significantly, and the change trend of the anode axial stress over the entire temperature range is also analyzed. The research in this paper provides theoretical basis for optimizing the anode-supported solid oxide fuel cell.