Simulation of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Anode Microstructure Evolution Using Phase Field Method

In the present study, a phase field method is used to simulate the microstructural evolution of nickel-yttria stabilized zirconia composite anode of solid oxide fuel cell based on three-dimensional microstructures reconstructed by focused ion beam-scanning-electron-microscopy technique. A three-dimensional reconstruction of the anode sample after initial reduction is used as the initial microstructure. By implementing efficient semi-implicit Fourier spectral method in the phase field simulation with different periodic boundary conditions, the computation efficiency is improved in orders of magnitude. In order to quantitatively study the correlation between the anode microstructure evolution and the resulting electrochemical performance degradation, the evolution of three-phase. boundary and nickel specific surface area and the nickel and pore phase tortuosity factors are quantitatively calculated in simulations. For comparison, different real time experiments have been conducted and the simulation results showed good agreement with the real time experimental data. (C) 2013 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.