At Resolvent, we’re always pushing the boundaries of fuel cell and electrolyzer stack simulations, and we’re excited to share how our latest in-house stack model (box model) is making it easier than ever to predict stack module performance with less computational effort.
What’s So Special About It?
We know that simulating complex Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs) and Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cells (SOECs) can be computationally heavy. That’s why we developed a ‘homogenized approach’ – a simplified yet highly accurate way to simulate the active area of stacks as porous domains while integrating them with flow manifolds.
This Multiphysics model, built in COMSOL Multiphysics, seamlessly couples fluid dynamics, electrochemistry, and heat transfer to give deep insights into how your system will behave under real-world conditions.
What Can You Learn from the Model?
🔹Temperature Distribution – Understand heat flow and thermal expansion in the stacks, manifolds, and baseplate.
🔹Flow Optimization – See how air and fuel distribute across the stacks and evaluate pressure drop.
🔹Stack Performance – Get detailed insights on current density, stack voltage, fuel & air utilization, and gas compositions.
Visualizing the Stack Module
The above image shows a four-stack module where we highlight different physical properties in each stack:
🔹 First Stack: Airflow streamlines with temperature as a color gradient.
🔹 Second Stack: Stack voltage distribution.
🔹 Third Stack: Fuel flow domain with hydrogen mole fraction as a color gradient.
🔹 Fourth Stack: Temperature distribution across the stack.
Noticed the high flow rate in some manifolds? Our model can help optimize this. This approach simplifies complex geometric details of the stacks while ensuring accurate predictions, helping engineers design more efficientfuel cell and electrolyzer systems while minimizing computational cost.
Let’s work together to make clean energy solutions more efficient, scalable, and impactful.