Modeling of cross-flow stack: sensitivity to thermal properties of the materials

LENI activities in SOFC are focused on development of a new planar stack concept based on anode supported cells in collaboration with the company HTceramix SA. Modeling of repeat element, stack and systems is starting in parallel. This work presents a model of a SOFC stack in cross flow configuration. Concentrations, temperature and current density fields are computed, with a focus on sensitivity study for thermal parameters, while operating parameters are kept constant for the different cases. The main parameter considered was the thickness of the metallic interconnect and the related thermal conductivity. Stack height and cell size effects are presented as well. Importance of the temperature field on the design point and degradation behavior is briefly discussed.