A multi-domain syngas solid oxide fuel cell model for transportation applications

Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) plays an important role in the transportation and automotive technology like the auxiliary power unit (APU) for trucks. An accurate fuel cell model can help the design of the automatic control in the transportation. This paper analyzes the numerical stiffness in a syngas fueled tubular SOFC model through the time constants in the ordinary differential equations (ODE). The proposed multi-domain fuel cell model uncovers the coupling of the stiff characteristics inside the fuel cell system by taking consideration of electrochemical, fluidic and thermal phenomena. Written in pure C language without the dependent of any platform, the trapezoidal rule with the second order backward difference formula (TR-BDF2) ODE solver gives a possibility for the embedded applications of the proposed fuel cell model, like real-time simulation and online diagnostic control in the transportation system. In addition, the presented model in this paper can also be used to verify the control methods for SOFC APU in the heavy-duty truck.