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In this study, the flow distribution in a planar solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) stack with external manifolds is investigated by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique. Three dimensional external manifold models are constructed for a SOFC stack composed of 24 cells. CFD simulations are implemented for two types of stacks with different inlet manifolds, including the manifold with three tube inlets (T-manifold) and the manifold with a gas chamber on top (C-manifold). The influences of different parameters such as channel resistance and gas feeding rate on flow distribution are studied. Modeling results indicate that the increase of channel resistance and a lower gas feeding rate can improve the uniformity factor of T-manifold and C-manifold. In addition, flow distribution in the stack with C-manifold is generally more uniform than the stack with T-manifold. Furthermore, velocity distribution of the gases at manifold outlets is measured using a hot-wire anemometer to verify the simulation results preliminarily.

CFD; External Manifold; Flow Distribution; Solid Oxide Fuel Cell; Three Dimensional Models