Abstract
Metal hydride (MH) is one of the highly effective hydrogen storage solutions that offer relatively low temperature-pressure working conditions and high volumetric hydrogen density. However, it has a less favorable mobility application due to its gravimetric density. In this study, a triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) is implemented in the reactor design to withstand the mechanical load. In addition, it can also be adopted as a part of the body frame to compensate for its weight. Reactors are having different wall thicknesses (1, 2, and 3 mm), and TPMS structure types (gyroid, Schwarz D, and Schwarz P) are designed and analyzed to accommodate the same amount of hydrogen storage capacity. The ability to withstand working pressure and load is then investigated with finite element analysis. Pressure drops and heat transfer performance are calculated with computational fluid dynamics (CFD). It is found that using the mobility application scenario, TPMS gyroid with 1mm wall thickness can withstand the working conditions and 5,000 N compressive strength mechanical load. The CFD results also indicated that the fluid inside the proposed gyroid reactor design is swirled and mixed even at a low flow rate with a pressure drop of 325.4 Pa. Based on this finding, TPMS-based structure MH reactor can be considered a promising novel way to store hydrogen in mobility applications.
