Numerical simulation of heat and mass transfer in metal hydride hydrogen storage tanks for fuel cell vehicles

Abstract

This paper presents a two-dimensional mathematical model to optimized heat and mass transfer in metal hydride storage tanks (hereinafter MHSTs) for fuel cell vehicles, equipped with finned spiral tube heat exchangers. This model which considers complex heat and mass transfer was numerically solved and validated by comparison with experimental data and a good agreement is obtained. A study of the effect of the pitch, length, thickness and the arrangement of fins on the performance of the charging process of the MHST has been carried out to identify their influence. In addition, the established model is used to study the dynamic behaviour inside various designs of MHSTs. Moreover a novel cooling design option is investigated by introducing a heat exchanger consists of two layers of spirally finned tubes.