Description
The micro-tubular SOFC is a type of fuel cell that has a diameter on the scale of millimetres. It has the advantage over the larger tubular and planar SOFCs because it can be heated up very rapidly to its operational temperature and can provide more power per volume. This may make the micro-tubular SOFC ideal for an automotive or APU power pack. In order to develop models that can provide information about where the cells should be positioned within arrays, which will make up power packs, it was considered that a high temperature wind tunnel would be a good tool to develop. Within this world’s first high temperature wind tunnel, for fuel cells. the cells are monitored with thermocouples and novel cell designs to measure oxygen concentrations within sample arrays. It is planned that these thermal and concentration measurements can be used to validate CFD models. An approach using a thermal camera to measure the wall temperature of cells within the high temperature wind tunnel has been developed. With certain modifications to the high temperature wind tunnel, the thermal camera can provide wall temperature results that would not be possible using intrusive thermo-couples. The wall temperature of the cells can also be studied in real time which is of special interest when the load on the cell is changed. Thermal gradients across the cell can also be measured under many different conditions including, differing oxidant and fuel temperatures and flow rates. Methods of fuelling the cells with capillary tubes have been compared to the usual method of fuelling the cells. These results have shown that a novel method of using the capillary pipe in a common inlet outlet position as a heat exchanger, a fuel supplier and a current collector could be a very interesting option for the fuel manifold design.| Period | 24 Sept 2009 |
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| Event title | Eleventh Grove Fuel Cell Symposium |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | London, United KingdomShow on map |