Perspectives on Lattice Boltzmann Modeling of Transport Processes with Electrochemical Reactions in SOFCs
Author
Summary, in English
Lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is alternative computational method to the traditional computational fluid dynamic (CFD) methods. LBM has the ability to with straightforward computational procedure to handle the detail activity at microscale well for simulation of different transport processes. In this study the focus is on the effects of electrochemical reactions and transport processes in an anode of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) at microscale. The electrochemical reactions are captured at specific sites where the so-called three-phase boundaries (TPB) are present. The porous modeling domain is created with randomly placed spheres of two different sizes to resemble the materials Ni and YSZ for the part of the anode close to the electrolyte. The simulated transport processes are mass, heat, momentum and charge transfer with electrochemical reactions. These are evaluated with the software tools Palabos and MATLAB.
It is concluded that LBM can be used to evaluate the microscopic effect of electrochemical reactions on the transport processes. Case studies are carried out on the current density and the concentration distribution of H2 by changing the porosity, percentage of active reaction sites and particle size. It is shown that an increase in porosity decreases the current density throughout the porous domain while an increase in percentage of active sites has a positive increase in current density. The concentration of H2 decreases throughout the cell when the porosity is increased from 30% to 50%. As a suggestion for future improvements, it might be a good idea to have the active reaction sites placed out in a graded manner with a high density of reaction sites where it is needed
It is concluded that LBM can be used to evaluate the microscopic effect of electrochemical reactions on the transport processes. Case studies are carried out on the current density and the concentration distribution of H2 by changing the porosity, percentage of active reaction sites and particle size. It is shown that an increase in porosity decreases the current density throughout the porous domain while an increase in percentage of active sites has a positive increase in current density. The concentration of H2 decreases throughout the cell when the porosity is increased from 30% to 50%. As a suggestion for future improvements, it might be a good idea to have the active reaction sites placed out in a graded manner with a high density of reaction sites where it is needed
Department/s
Publishing year
2013
Language
English
Publication/Series
Proceedings of the ASME 11th International Mechanical Congress and Exposition
Document type
Conference paper
Publisher
American Society Of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
Topic
- Energy Engineering
Keywords
- Porous media
- SOFC
- LBM
- Microscale
- Mass diffusion
- Fluid flow
- Anode
Conference name
ASME 11th International Mechanical Congress and Exposition
Conference date
2013-11-14
Conference place
San Diego, California, United States
Status
Published
Research group
- heat transfer
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISBN: 978-0-7918-5629-1