TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION IN TUBULAR SOLID OXIDE FUEL-CELL

The temperature distribution in the tubular solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) was calculated by using a finite element method. In this study, specially, the heat generation and consumption caused by the entropy changes at anode and cathode were taken into account for the calculation of temperature distribution in SOFC. In order to estimate the tendency of temperature distribution, the current distribution and the partial pressure distributions of hydrogen, steam, and oxygen were obtained from the calculation by using the simple mathematical model. From the temperature distribution in the tubular SOFC, it can be seen that the temperature difference is largest in the region of porous cathode material. This indicates that the heat generation from the entropy change of cathode reaction has the significant effect for the temperature distribution in tubular solid oxide fuel cell.