Geometrical optimization of longitudinal cooling fins for metal hydride based hydrogen storage reactors

Abstract

Three dimensional unsteady computations have been carried out to study the absorption of Hydrogen in a metal hydride based cylindrical hydrogen storage reactor having cooling tubes with longitudinal fins. The results of the simulations have been compared with a base case having the exact configuration of a cooling tube but without fins. An optimization study is performed by varying the geometric parameters of the longitudinal cooling fins, such as their length and thickness. Both the rate of absorption and material mass added for this have been scrutinized to arrive at an optimal design. The variation of average bed temperature and hydrogen concentration with time have been presented for different cases of fin geometry. Instantaneous contours of hydrogen concentration have also been presented in this work.