Design of advanced flow channels in bipolar plates is one of the key factors affecting SOFC stack and system performance. Various transport phenomena occurring in SOFCs with conventional interconnects with rib- or serpentine channels, etc, have been extensively studied. In this paper new designed channels are proposed and evaluated numerically by computational software. The investigated geometry consists of two computational domains: a porous anode layer and interconnect. The latter one serves as gas distribution for hydrogen or air in SOFCs. Compared with conventional designs, the configuration of interconnect having honeycomb structures is different. Such unique channels lead to gas flow in many directions, and gas flow distribution and pressure drop are significantly different from those in conventional designs. This simulation employs the Navier-Stokes equations for the gas flow in the channels, and the Darcy model in the porous layer. Combined gas and heat transfer in the channels and the porous gas diffusion layer, permeation across the interface are analyzed by a fully three-dimensional code in this paper. All the governing equations are solved utilizing the commercial code COMSOL. The velocity field, the distribution of hydrogen in the channels, the fraction of the hydrogen entering the anode diffusion layer, and the pressure drop are predicted and presented. Also, the friction factor of the unique design is compared with that of the rectangular channel. The numerical results and findings from this study are important for optimizing the flow fields, decreasing the cost of experiments and designing of the channels.
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