• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.520-529
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• 1998

Heat and mass transfer behaviors of metal hydride beds were predicted by solving a set of volume-averaged equations numerically both for the gas (hydrogen) and the solid(metal hydride) phases. Time variations of temperature and hydrogen concentration ratio distributions were obtained for internally cooled, cylindrical-shaped beds with metal(aluminum) fins imbedded in them. Also, time variations of the space-averaged hydrogen concentration ratio were obtained. Temperature and velocity of the coolant, hydrogen pressure at the gas inlet, and the fin spacing were taken as the parameters. The hydrogen absorption rate increases with the higher velocity and the lower temperature of the coolant, and with the decrease of the fin spacing. Increasing of the hydrogen pressure at the gas inlet also promotes the rate of absorption though the increasing rate gradually slows down. The amount of the hydrogen storage per unit volume of the bed decreases with the tighter fin spacing despite of the higher absorption rate ; therefore, there should be an optimum fin spacing for a given volume of the system and the amount of the hydrogen storage, in which the absorption rate is the highest.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.225.1-225.1
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• 2010

Within recent years attention has been focused on the method of hydrogen storage using metal hydride reactor due to its high energy density, durability, safety and low operating pressure. In this paper, a numerical study is carried out to investigate the coupled heat and mass transfer process for absorption in a cylindrical metal hydride hydrogen storage reactor using a newly developed model. The simulation results demonstrate the evolution of temperature, equilibrium pressure, H/M atomic ratio and velocity distribution as time goes by. Initially, hydrogen is absorbed earlier from near the wall which sets the cooling boundary condition owing to that absorption process is exothermic reaction. Temperature increases rapidly in entire region at the beginning stage due to the initial low temperature and enough metal surface for hydrogen absorption. As time goes by, temperature decreases slowly from the wall region due to the better heat removal. Equilibrium pressure distribution appears similarly with temperature distribution for reasons of the function of temperature. This work provides a detailed insight into the mechanism and corresponding physicochemical phenomena in the reactor during the hydrogen absorption process.