Effect Double Vertical Batteries Storage on Hydrogen Concentration in Air Conditioned Storage Room

Abstract

Indoor air quality inside NiCad battery storage rooms is investigated in the current research. A proper ventilation system will guarantee safe environment inside the battery room by keeping vented gasses within their safe threshold allowed by standards and achieve sustainable energy efficient design by selecting the proper value of Air change per hour (ACH). This should be done by selecting the optimum configuration of inlets and outlets grilles location as well as choosing the most suitable way of battery storage whether on single rack, double rack or double rack with multi steps. Indoor air quality inside the battery storage room subjected to hydrogen gas emissions from the stored vented batteries is investigated numerically throughout the current research using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). ANSYS 16.0 software was used. Parametric study is done to investigate the effect of splitting the long single row into two halves vertical rows (double rack with single step and double rack with double step) on ventilation efficiency for safety considerations. Storing the batteries in double vertical racks with double steps offered the best ventilation performance, using wall type inlet grille at the lower wall section (at the side) and outlet grilles at the roof, while the batteries’ racks are surrounded by curtains to act as local exhaust ventilation technique.