To improve solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC), solid-state battery, solid oxide electrolyzer cell (SOEC), and other ceramic applications performance, it is necessary to understand the fundamental behavior of ceramic materials. This include stress distribution during manufacturing and operation, as well as novel architectures including high porosity and multilayer composites. Initial work has focused on understanding and resolving unexpected failure mechanisms occurring with internal cathode tubular SOFCs (IC-tSOFCs) as a result of unique residual stress distributions that result from mismatches in thermal expansion coefficients between different ceramic layers. By utilizing creep stress relaxation, this defect was able to be eliminated, allowing for establishment of IC-tSOFCs as an effective technology.

Future work will focus on producing novel ceramic architectures to investigate the boundaries of ceramic material capabilities as well as validation of computer simulation.