Abstract
This paper studied the characteristics of performance and temperature in a unit cell of a planar type SOFC under various conditions by employing computational fluid dynamics (CFD). In order to derive thermal stress distribution and performance characteristics, the 3-D model simulation for a single channel was performed in various conditions which include interconnect materials $(LaCrO_3/AISI430)$, gas flow direction (co-flow/counter-flow) and inlet temperature (923 K/1173 K). From these results of a single channel, the most effective conditions were applied to the unit stack with multi-channel and the temperature distribution is displayed. Considering both thermal stress and performance, the best combination is 923 K inlet temperature, counter-flow and interconnector of stainless steel. As the end results, flow, thermal and current density distributions were found in the model with multi-channel applied to the best combination and were concentrated in the middle of channels than in the edge.