Metal hydride themal battery design, lumped capacitance modeling and validity criteria

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Title Metal hydride themal battery design, lumped capacitance modeling and validity criteria
Publication Type thesis
School or College College of Engineering
Department Mechanical Engineering
Author Whatcott, Gareth D.
Date 2013-12
Description In this thesis, the design and analysis of a dual bed metal hydride thermal battery is presented. First, a computer code that sizes the hydride bed cell to meet prescribed heat transfer goals is presented. A hypothetical bed shape is chosen and a matched pair of hydrides is optimized using the model. Various considerations are taken into account in selecting an appropriate con guration including ice buildup on the low temperature bed, pressure drop along the heat exchanger and cost. Second, a dynamic lumped capacitance kinetic model detailing the rate of hydrogen absorption and temperature change is presented. The model is validated against published data for a one bed constant pressure con guration, experimental data gathered for a second one bed constant pressure con guration and nally for a two bed thermal battery operating in heat pump mode. Third, it was found that each hydride should experience maximum kinetic rates at a temperature explicitly de ned by the hydrides fundamental properties and the local hydrogen pressure. Finally, a nite di erence model is developed to predict the radial temperature variation across the hydride cell cross section. It was found that the lumped capacitance model provides reasonable predictions of average cross-section temperatures as long as the kinetic rates, dimensions and thermal conductivity are such that a derived critical dimensionless ratio is less than 0.1.
Type Text
Publisher University of Utah
Subject Battery; Design; Hydide; Metal; Thermal; Validity
Dissertation Institution University of Utah
Dissertation Name Master of Science
Language eng
Rights Management Copyright © Gareth D. Whatcott 2013
Format application/pdf
Format Medium application/pdf
Format Extent 2,579,414 Bytes
Identifier http://content.lib.utah.edu/cdm/ref/collection/etd3/id/3484
ARK ark:/87278/s67w9mgs
Setname ir_etd
ID 197038
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s67w9mgs
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