Computational fluid dynamics analysis of solid oxide electrolysis cells with delaminations

Due to thermal expansion mismatch, the electrode layer of SOECs might be detached from the electrolyte layer, leading to delamination phenomenon. While this phenomenon is observed in post-test stacks, quantitative understanding of delamination effects may facilitate to evaluate SOEC performance tolerance on such failures. In this research, a 2-D CFD SOEC model is developed and is utilized to investigate the sensitivity of electrolysis performance to deliminations occurred at oxygen electrode/electrolyte interface. Results indicate that delaminations significantly influence local charge current density distributions since the charge transport path is cutoff. In both parallel flow and counter flow settings, electrolysis performance is more sensitive to the delamination occurred at the center of the cell than those occurred at the edges of the cell.