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TECHNICAL PAPERS

# Detailed Simulation of the Ohmic Resistance of Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

[+] Author and Article Information
Laura Repetto, Adriana Del Borghi, Paola Costamagna

DICHEP,  University of Genoa, Genoa, 16145, Italy

Gerry Agnew

Rolls-Royce Fuel Cell Systems Ltd, Derby, UK

Fabio Di Benedetto

DIMA,  University of Genoa, Genoa, 16145, Italy

J. Fuel Cell Sci. Technol 4(4), 413-417 (Apr 19, 2006) (5 pages) doi:10.1115/1.2756847 History: Received December 21, 2005; Revised April 19, 2006

## Abstract

A theoretical evaluation of the ohmic resistance of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) is very important because internal ohmic resistances account for a large part of the losses occurring in SOFCs and significantly affect cell performance. However, in the majority of cases, a detailed evaluation of ohmic losses is not an elementary task, since the structure of the geometry makes it difficult to apply simple laws, such as $R=ρl∕S$. The solution of a PDE equation is required, which has to be performed numerically. In this paper, two different numerical approaches have been applied to the simulation of the internal ohmic resistances of basic SOFC units, and the results have been compared. In particular, the commercial mathematical software FEMLAB and MATLAB have been used to implement the different numerical approaches. The agreement between the obtained results is very good.

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## Figures

Figure 1

Schematic illustration of the IP-SOFC

Figure 2

Basic SOFC unit simulated in this paper

Figure 3

Schematic illustration of the basic 3D SOFC

Figure 4

Cross section of the basic 3D SOFC unit

Figure 5

Domain of the partial differential equations

Figure 6

(a) Color map of voltage (in millivolts) obtained with FEMLAB and (b) Color map of voltage (in millivolts) obtained with MATLAB

Figure 7

(a) FEMLAB simulation. Color map: current density, norm (in milliamperes per centimeters squared). Streamlines: current density. (b) MATLAB simulation. Color map: current density, norm (in milliamperes per centimeters squared).

Figure 8

FEMLAB simulation of current density distribution in the electrolyte

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