Pages 53-54
In order to reduce charging time of hydrogen storage tank with metal hydride (MH), an optimum fin arrangement enhancing poor heat conductivity of MH bed was numerically analyzed. Outline of the analysis is as follows. Radial aluminum fins are inserted around a central hydrogen filter in a simple circular MH tank where the outer surface serves as a heat transfer surface. Then the effect of fin number on the charging time is evaluated. When the fin number is below 16,the charging time considerably decreases with increase of the fin number. The effect of fins more than 16 becomes smaller and the increase of fin area (larger than 20% of total cross sectional area) may not be compensated. The optimum fin number is applied to a design of MH tank for FCEV and effectiveness of the qualitative analysis in the design is also shown.
