• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• 제25권4호
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• pp.572-582
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• 2001

A method of metal-hydride thermal conversion that is an alternative to the traditional method is proposed and investigated. The unit heat pump consists of reactors of two different metal-hydrides are distributed inside parallel channels filled with porous media. The channels are blown through with a heat-transfer agent. Thermal conversion develops as a set of successive heat waves. By a numerical-modeling method it is shown that the maximum thermal effect is attained in synchronous motion of the heat wave and the heat source (or sink) that accompanies the phase transition in the succession of unit metal-hydride pumps. The results are presented in a form convenient for prediction of the thermal and energy efficiency of the proposed thermal-conversion method in real devices.