Towards the 3D Modelling of the Effective Conductivity of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Electrodes - Validation against experimental measurements and prediction of electrochemical performance

© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.The effective conductivity of thick-film solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) electrodes plays a key role in their performance. It determines the ability of the electrode to transport charge to/from reaction sites to the current collector and electrolyte. In this paper, the validity of the recently proposed 3D resistor network model for the prediction of effective conductivity, the ResNet model, is investigated by comparison to experimental data. The 3D microstructures of Ni/10ScSZ anodes are reconstructed using tomography through the focused ion beam and scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM) technique. This is used as geometric input to the ResNet model to predict the effective conductivities, which are then compared against the experimentally measured values on the same electrodes. Good agreement is observed, supporting the validity of the ResNet model for predicting the effective conductivity of SOFC electrodes. The ResNet model is then combined with the volume-of-fluid (VOF) method to integrate the description of the local conductivity (electronic and ionic) in the prediction of electrochemical performance. The results show that the electrochemical performance is in particular sensitive to the ionic conductivity of the electrode microstructure, highlighting the importance of an accurate description of the local ionic conductivity

Towards the 3D modeling of the effective conductivity of solid oxide fuel cellelectrodes – II. Computationalparameters

The effective conductivity of a thick-film solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) electrode is an important characteristic used to link the microstructure of the electrode to its performance. A 3D resistor network model, the ResNet model, developed to determine the effective conductivity of a given SOFC electrode microstructure was introduced in earlier work (Rhazaoui et al., Chem. Eng. Sci. 99, 161-170, 2013). The approach is based on the discretization of each structure into voxels (small cubic elements discretizing the microstructure). In this paper, synthetic structures of increasing complexity are analyzed before an optimum discretization resolution per particle diameter is determined. The notion of Volume Elements (VEs), based on the Volume-Of-Fluid method, is then introduced in the model to allow larger structures to be modelled and is used to analyze synthetic structures as well as an experimental Ni/10ScSZ electrode. The behaviour of the model output is examined with respect to increasing aggregation resolutions for several synthetic microstructures of varying compositions, with the aid of extracted skeletonized paths of charge-conducting pathways. A ratio of VE size to voxel size of 5 is shown to be appropriate. The first comparison of calculated and measured effective conductivities is presented for the Ni/10ScSZ electrode considered. The computed effective conductivities are found to be consistent with observations made on the microstructure itself and skeletonized network paths, and support the findings of earlier work with respect to the minimum sample size required to characterize the entire anode from which it is extracted

Towards the 3D modeling of the effective conductivity of solid oxide fuel cell electrodes: I. Model development

The effective conductivity of a thick-film solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) electrode is an important characteristic used to link the microstructure of the electrode to its performance. A 3D resistor network model that has been developed to determine the effective conductivity of a given SOFC electrode microstructure, the Resistor Network or ResNet model, is introduced in this paper. The model requires the discretization of a 3D microstructure into voxels, based on which a mixed resistor network is drawn. A potential difference is then applied to this network and yields the corresponding currents, allowing the equivalent resistance and hence conductivity of the entire structure to be determined. An overview of the ResNet modeling methodology is presented. The approach is general and can be applied to structures of arbitrary complexity, for which appropriate discretization resolutions are required. The validity of the model is tested by applying it to a set of model structures and comparing calculated effective conductivity values against analytical results. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd

Towards the 3D modeling of the effective conductivity of solid oxide fuel cellelectrodes – II. Computationalparameters

The effective conductivity of a thick-film solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) electrode is an important characteristic used to link the microstructure of the electrode to its performance. A 3D resistor network model, the ResNet model, developed to determine the effective conductivity of a given SOFC electrode microstructure was introduced in earlier work (Rhazaoui et al., Chem. Eng. Sci. 99, 161-170, 2013). The approach is based on the discretization of each structure into voxels (small cubic elements discretizing the microstructure). In this paper, synthetic structures of increasing complexity are analyzed before an optimum discretization resolution per particle diameter is determined. The notion of Volume Elements (VEs), based on the Volume-Of-Fluid method, is then introduced in the model to allow larger structures to be modelled and is used to analyze synthetic structures as well as an experimental Ni/10ScSZ electrode. The behaviour of the model output is examined with respect to increasing aggregation resolutions for several synthetic microstructures of varying compositions, with the aid of extracted skeletonized paths of charge-conducting pathways. A ratio of VE size to voxel size of 5 is shown to be appropriate. The first comparison of calculated and measured effective conductivities is presented for the Ni/10ScSZ electrode considered. The computed effective conductivities are found to be consistent with observations made on the microstructure itself and skeletonized network paths, and support the findings of earlier work with respect to the minimum sample size required to characterize the entire anode from which it is extracted

Towards the 3D modelling of the effective conductivity of solid oxide fuel cell electrodes - Validation against experimental measurements and prediction of electrochemical performance

© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.The effective conductivity of thick-film solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) electrodes plays a key role in their performance. It determines the ability of the electrode to transport charge to/from reaction sites to the current collector and electrolyte. In this paper, the validity of the recently proposed 3D resistor network model for the prediction of effective conductivity, the ResNet model, is investigated by comparison to experimental data. The 3D microstructures of Ni/10ScSZ anodes are reconstructed using tomography through the focused ion beam and scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM) technique. This is used as geometric input to the ResNet model to predict the effective conductivities, which are then compared against the experimentally measured values on the same electrodes. Good agreement is observed, supporting the validity of the ResNet model for predicting the effective conductivity of SOFC electrodes. The ResNet model is then combined with the volume-of-fluid (VOF) method to integrate the description of the local conductivity (electronic and ionic) in the prediction of electrochemical performance. The results show that the electrochemical performance is in particular sensitive to the ionic conductivity of the electrode microstructure, highlighting the importance of an accurate description of the local ionic conductivity