Search

To study possible failure modes of the Hexis Galileo solid oxide fuel cell stack, various stack components such as nickel/yttria stabilised zirconia anodes, lanthanum strontium manganese cathodes, 3 mol%-yttria stabilised zirconia electrolytes and chromium alloy metallic interconnectors have been characterised with respect to their thermo-mechanical properties. Specifically, coefficients of thermal expansion, Young's moduli, bending strengths, Poisson's ratios and fracture toughnesses have been measured. Furthermore, the temperature-dependent warpage of complete cells has been investigated by video analysis. All experimental data were taken as input parameters for a set of finite element models to analyse various thermo-mechanical phenomena on different length scales. The simulations offer an explanation for the often observed ´saddle-like´ deformations of cells at room temperature. They also show that cracks that first develop within the anode induce local tensile stresses within the electrolyte and hence represent a weakening mechanism for the cells. It is shown that the induced electrolyte stresses depend on the anode crack density. The electrolyte stresses decrease as the distances between the anode cracks become smaller.

The effects of compositional and environmental parameters on the kinetics of microstructural degradation are investigated for porous Ni/CGO anodes in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC). Improved methodologies of SEM-imaging, segmentation and object recognition are described which enable a precise quantification of nickel grain growth over time. Due to these methodological improvements the grain growth can be described precisely with a standard deviation of only 5–15 nm for each time step. In humid atmosphere (60 vol.% H2O, 40% N2/H2) the growth rates of nickel are very high (up to 140%/100 h) during the initial period (<200 h). At longer exposure time (>1000 h) the growth rates decrease significantly to nearly 0%/100 h. In contrast, under dry conditions (97 vol.% N2, 3 vol.% H2) the growth rates during the initial period are much lower (ca. 1%/100 h) but they do not decrease over a period of 2000 h. In addition to the humidity factor there are other environmental and compositional parameters which have a strong influence on the kinetics of the microstructural degradation. The nickel coarsening is strongly depending on the gas flow rate. Also the initial microstructures and the anode compositions have a big effect on the degradation kinetics. Thereby small average grain sizes, wide distribution of particle size and high contents of nickel lead to higher coarsening and degradation rates. Whereas the nickel coarsening appears to be the dominant degradation mechanism during the initial period (<200 h) other degradation phenomena become more important during long exposure time (>1000 h) in humidified gas. Thereby the evaporation of volatile nickel species may lead to a local increase of the Ni/CGO ratio. Due to the surface wetting of CGO a continuous layer tends to form on the surface of the nickel grains which prevents further grain growth and evaporation of nickel. These phenomena lead to a microstructural reorganization between 1000 and 2300 h of exposure. This complex pat