Estimation of microscale redox tolerance for Ni-based solid oxide fuel cell anodes via three-dimensional finite element modeling

Altan T., Çelik S., Toros S., Korkmaz H. G., Timurkutluk B.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HYDROGEN ENERGY, vol.3, no.48, pp.1060-1074, 2023 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 3 Issue: 48
  • Publication Date: 2023
  • Doi Number: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2022.10.019
  • Journal Name: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HYDROGEN ENERGY
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, PASCAL, Artic & Antarctic Regions, Chemical Abstracts Core, Communication Abstracts, Environment Index, INSPEC
  • Page Numbers: pp.1060-1074
  • Keywords: Solid oxide fuel cell, Nickel anode, Synthetic microstructure generation, Redox, Micro-modeling, Element deletion
  • Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

Reduction-oxidation (redox) cycles of Ni-based anodes in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) directly affect the cell performance due to breaking anode three/triple phase boundary (TPB) networks at microscale. Furthermore, these microcracks accumulate with the number of redox cycles leading to mechanical damage in the cell as a result of continuous volumetric changes during the inevitable cyclic reduction and oxidation of the nickel oxide and nickel, threatening the service life of SOFC systems. Therefore, the redox process needs to be investigated as a phenomenon at microscale to understand and minimize its effects. In this regard, we suggest a microscale approach for the redox process of Ni-based SOFC anodes in this study. For this purpose, SOFC anode microstructures with different compositions and porosities are synthetically generated by Dream.3D software and mechanical damages due to the redox cycle are investigated via element deletion through LS-DYNA for the first time in the literature. The anodes are characterized by computing the redox tolerance based on the resultant damage and the anode composition showing the highest redox tolerance is determined among the cases considered.