Quantification of the Radiative and Convective Heat Transfer Processes and their Effect on mSOFC by CFD Modelling

The CFD modelling of heat transfer in a microtubular Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (mSOFC) stack has been presented. Stack performance predictions were based on a 16 anode-supported microtubular SOFCs sub-stack, which is a component of the overall stack containing 64 fuel cells. Both radiative and convective heat transfer were taken into account in the modelling. The heat flux value corresponded to the cell voltage of 0.7 [V]. Two different cases of the inlet air velocity of 2.0 and 8.5 [ms–1] were considered. It was found that radiation accounted for about 20–30 [%] of the total heat flux from the active tube surface, which means that the convective heat transfer predominated over the radiative one.