PREDICTION OF ON-DESIGN AND OFF-DESIGN PERFORMANCE FOR A SOLID OXIDE FUEL-CELL POWER MODULE

This paper presents a power or ''stack'' model which accurately predic ts on-design as well as off-design performance for a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) bundle or module. Most researchers have chosen simply to a ssume that the performance of multiple cells is just a linear extensio n of a single cells' performance [1, 2]. This paper shows that this as sumption is incorrect and that the performance of a single cell must b e integrated into a power module model to predict performance accurate ly. This paper also shows that, since module performance is not a line ar extension of single cell performance, off-design predictions are im portant, and the position of cell failure is critical as to whether a degraded module remains economically viable.