• Built a coupled electrochemical multiphysics model for a symmetric MS-SOFC. • Performed a controlled comparison between straight-rib MS-SOFC and AS-SOFC. • Evaluated staggered semicircular ribs and benchmarked against straight-rib channels. • Staggered ribs reduce pressure drop, smooth temperature, and raise current density. • Optimized rib-to-channel width ratio for best overall performance. In this study, a three-dimensional (3D) multi-physics model of a symmetric metal-supported SOFC (MS-SOFC) is developed and calibrated against stack-level experimental data. Under identical geometric parameters and boundary conditions, the symmetric MS-SOFC with straight ribs (SR) is compared with an anode-supported SOFC (AS-SOFC). The MS-SOFC shows markedly improved cathode performance and higher electrochemical output, with a narrower current–density range of j max / j min = 2.41 and a 32% higher peak power density than the AS-SOFC. To improve flow and thermal uniformity without incurring excessive pressure loss, a continuous interconnect design with controlled geometric modulation is proposed. A staggered semicircular rib (SSR) configuration is introduced within the active area while maintaining the same rib-path width, channel width, and rib count. The limited rib-to-rib contact provides discrete-like gas redistribution while preserving rib continuity, which helps maintain reactant supply in low-mole-fraction regions. As a result, SSR increases the maximum fuel utilization to 76% and delivers a peak power density about 15% higher than the straight-rib baseline. Finally, the influence of the rib-to-channel width proportion is examined for three cases, w r : w c of 1:1, 1:1.25, and 1:1.5. The optimal design, SSR-2 with w r : w c = 1 : 1.25 , achieves the best overall performance, exhibiting the most continuous relative-velocity pattern and a peak power density about 6% higher than SSR-1.
Sun et al. (Sat,) studied this question.