Numerical investigation of high temperature metal hydride water pumping system

Abstract

I n the present work, a high temperature Metal Hydride Water Pumping System (MHWPS) equipped with a latent heat exchanger was investigated numerically. The operating concept of the pump was presented and the mathematical model of heat and mass transfer within the pump was established. We simulated the pump under different operating conditions using the alloy Mg2Ni as a metal hydride and the KNO3 as a Phase Change Material (PCM). The obtained results have shown that i) the developed numerical model is flexible and accurate in predicting the dynamic behavior of the pump ii) the numerical model without radiative heat transfer gives results with errors that can reach 38%, particularly for pumping time iii) the integration of the PCM provides a reduction in the pumping time of about 90% and an increase of the efficiency of the pump of about 7.6 times compared to the case without PCM which represents an improvement of 86% and iv) the Mg2Ni alloy requires high temperature and a mass of PCM about 9 times larger than the case of LaNi5 alloy to pump a volume 6.5 times greater than that pumped with LaNi5.