Coupling Analysis of the Flow and Heat Transfer in 1 Kw-Scale T-Sis-Sofc Stack: Numerical Simulation and Experiment Study

Abstract

This paper investigates the flow field and manifold structure of 1 kW T-SIS-SOFC stack using numerical simulation and experiment study. It analyzes the flow and heat transfer within the 5×5 stack by considering the electrochemical, heat, and mass transfer characteristics of the single tubular cell, and an experiment surrogate model design was proposed to enhance the reliability of numerical simulations for T-SIS-SOFC stack. The stack structure proposed demonstrates robust performance under full load operation, the difference in hydrogen distribution among the tubular cells within the stack is less than 0.1 mol/min, with improved fuel gas uniformity at lower loads. The manifolds design of the airflow reduces the maximum temperature of the stack by 73 K, decreases the high-temperature region by 66%, and lowers the standard deviation of the airflow distribution by 35%. The optimized 1 kW T-SIS-SOFC stack ensures better reactants distribution, minimizing the risk of failure during long-term and high-temperature operation, offering an improved solution for numerical simulation research and thermal management in kW-scale T-SIS-SOFC stack.

Keywords: T-SIS-SOFC stack, Fuel distribution, Air flow field, Manifold design, Temperature uniformity, Experiment surrogate model