Real-time deformation and stress response of the planar SOFC during sintering

The thermal-mechanical response of the anode-supported planar solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) during sintering is important for its manufacturing and in-service operation. The integrated micro/nano-indentation and finite element (FE) modeling method was used to characterize the Young's modulus, yield stress and creeping for the NiO-3YSZ anode and 8YSZ electrolyte at room temperature. Based on the real-time full-field deformation of the half-cell SOFC which was measured using the 3D digital image correlation (DIC), the FE simulation was used to estimate the stress response in a manner of sensitivity study. It shows that the half-cell SOFC warps towards the anode substrate during heating and points in the opposite direction during cooling. The warping deformation of FE simulation matches well with the DIC measurement. In addition, the maximum tensile stress in the electrolyte coat of the half-cell SOFC plate is about 207 MPa if assuming temperature-independence of creeping for the SOFC materials.