Performance evaluation of a trapezoidal interconnector configuration of solid oxide fuel cell: A numerical study

A solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is an intricate system involving an amalgam of several electrochemical reactions with thermal-fluid-electrical interactions. To enhance the performance of the fuel cell, the interconnector configuration has to be designed judiciously. In this article, a trapezoidal interconnector (TI) design for anode and cathode flow channels after a thorough simulation carried out with all the multi-physics involved using ANSYS fluent is proposed. The proposed TI design performance is compared against the conventional rectangular interconnector (CRI) configuration. From the results, it is observed that the TI design provides an increase of 18.2% power density compared to the CRI configuration when the cell is operated at 1123 K operating temperature. The proposed design offers the advantage of operating the cell at a lower operating temperature of 1073 K with an increment of 10.68% power density compared to the 1123 K operating temperature in a CRI configuration. In addition, the influence of rib width on the anode side fuel transport is also evaluated by designing a SOFC with a rectangular parallel anode interconnector and a trapezoidal channel cathode interconnector. It is concluded that the rib width of the anode side has a moderate effect on fuel transport in anode-supported SOFCs.

Automated summary

A trapezoidal interconnector design for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) is proposed and compared with the conventional rectangular interconnector (CRI) configuration. The results show that the trapezoidal design increases power density and allows for lower operating temperature in SOFCs. The width of the rib on the anode side has a moderate effect on fuel transport.