Journal of Power Sources 195 (2010) 7787–7795 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Power Sources journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jpowsour Three-dimensional thermo-fluid and electrochemical modeling of anode-supported planar solid oxide fuel cell Zuopeng Qu a,∗ , P.V. Aravind a , N.J.J. Dekker b , A.H.H. Janssen b , N. Woudstra a , A.H.M. Verkooijen a a Department of Process & Energy, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands b Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN), The Netherlands article info Article history: Received 2 November 2009 Received in revised form 2 February 2010 Accepted 7 February 2010 Available online 24 February 2010 Keywords: Three-dimensional Solid oxide fuel cell CFD modeling Radiation abstract This paper presents a three-dimensional model of an anode-supported planar solid oxide fuel cell with corrugated bipolar plates serving as gas channels and current collector above the active area of the cell. Conservation equations of mass, momentum, energy and species are solved incorporating the electro- chemical reactions. Heat transfer due to conduction, convection and radiation is included. An empirical equation for cell resistance with measured values for different parameters is used for the calculations. Distribution of temperature and gas concentrations in the PEN (positive electrode/electrolyte/negative electrode) structure and gas channels are investigated. Variation of current density over the cell is studied. Furthermore, the effect of radiation on the temperature distribution is studied and discussed. Modeling results show that the relatively uniform current density is achieved at given conditions for the proposed design and the inclusion of thermal radiation is required for accurate prediction of temperature field in the single cell unit. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Fuel cells are energy conversion devices which can produce electricity and heat (such as high temperature fuel cell, SOFC) directly from a gaseous or gasified fuel by electrochemical reac- tion of that fuel with an oxidant. Because of the high efficiency and low emission level of pollutants fuel cells are considered to be an environment-friendly way of producing electricity. Furthermore, with the increasingly visible multi-fuel capability, solid oxide fuel cells are being paid more attention recently [1]. However, the development of SOFC is still facing some challeng- ing problems, such as proven longer life time, a lower net cost and an elevated performance, towards its large-scale commercializa- tion and profitability [2]. In order to achieve these, a better detailed understanding of the internal processes and an accurate prediction of operating parameters inside the fuel cell is required. The SOFC’s high operating temperature makes the experimental investigation and measurement of these parameters costly and difficult, there- fore mathematical modeling becomes an important tool to evaluate the performance, identify and overcome the problems faced by the development of SOFCs. Among all these parameters, the accurate determination of the temperature distribution is of particular significance because the ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +31 015 278 3688; fax: +31 015 278 2460. E-mail address: z.qu@tudelft.nl (Z. Qu). majority of the decisive parameters governing the performance of fuel cells, for instance, material properties, chemical kinetics and current densities, etc., are heavily depending on the temperatures. In addition to these, to avoid the mechanical failure of cell struc- ture, temperature gradients are required to calculate the thermal stress in the cell. Therefore, a number of theoretical models have been developed to predict the temperature profile of SOFC. Studies of one-, two- or three-dimensional models with various configu- rations and geometries have been published for either tubular or planar types of SOFCs [3–15]. However, most of the models so far reported have the defi- ciencies in either simply ignoring the electrochemical reaction happening in the fuel cell [3], or assuming reactions taking place in the gas phase or surface area instead of the solid-phase volumetric reactions [4]. Some models only consider the cell as a single solid- phase and neglect the effect of the diffusion of gases through the porous electrodes [5]. The resistance used in the electrochemical model is calculated theoretically rather than experimentally [6]. Additionally, for simplicities the effect of thermal radiation is not taken into account in predicting the temperature of fuel cell [7]. The limitations of these models may affect the accuracy and reliability of the results [8]. In this study, a three-dimensional thermo-fluid model cou- pled with electrochemical reaction for an anode-supported planar SOFC has been developed to investigate the internal processes and temperature distribution within a single cell unit for the proposed design. The electrochemical reactions, heat and mass 0378-7753/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jpowsour.2010.02.016