Ralph Clague

Application of Infrared Thermal Imaging to Map Stress Distributions in a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell

The application of infrared thermal imaging to the study of solid oxide fuel cell components with applied thermal gradients is demonstrated. Thermal imaging of a technologically relevant SOFC sample was carried out while a temperature gradient was induced by heating the sample in a furnace and blowing cold nitrogen at its centre. Subsequently the stress field in the sample was determined by a novel method of converting the thermal image into nodal temperatures for a finite element analysis. Asymmetry in the temperature distribution across the samples was marked, whereas previous versions of the thermal gradient experiment had assumed axisymmetry.