Numerical analysis of the gas flow-rate uniformity in the anode flow channel of indirect internal reforming molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) under different pressure drop and temperature conditions

간접 내부 개질형 용융탄산염 연료전지 anode 채널에서의 압력 강하 및 온도 조건 변경에 따른 유량 균일도에 관한 수치 해석적 연구

The uniform gas distribution between anode channels of the indirect internal reforming type molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) is crucial design parameter because of the electric performance and the durability problems. A three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis is performed to investigate flow characteristics in the anode channels and manifold under different pressure drop and channel temperature conditions. The combined meshes consists of hexadral meshes in the channels and polyhedral meshes in the manifold are adopted and chemical reactions inside the MCFC system are not included because of computational difficulties associated with the size and geometric complexity of the system. Results indicate that the uniformity in flow-rate is in the range of $\pm$ 0.048 % between the anode channels when the pressure drop of anode channel is about 150 Pa. A gas flow-rate uniformity decreases as the pressure drop of anode channels decreases and as the temperature difference between indirect internal reforming (IIR) channels and anode channels increases.