HEAT TRANSFER ENGINEERING
https://doi.org/10.1080/01457632.2025.2511451
Dynamic Model Development and Performance Prediction of a Compressor
Operated Metal Hydride Based Closed Cycle Cooling System
Sayantan Janaa,b and Palanisamy Muthukumarb,c
a
Department of Thermal Energy Technology, Cottbus, Germany; bDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of
Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, Assam, India; cDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Tirupati,
Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India
ABSTRACT
This work reports the dynamic model development and simulation outcomes of a circular
loop compressor operated metal hydride based cooling system. A reduced order 0-D model
has been developed in which the functionality of the hydrogen compressor has been mim
icked by invoking appropriate pressure and flow conditions. This numerical model does not
assume the type of compressor involved i.e., whether it is positive displacement type or
rotodynamic type; rather, the compression process is solely dictated by the suction and dis
charge side pressures and flow rate. The model is able to accurately capture the dynamics
of hydrogen carriage between the connected reactors and the associated work input. Two
identical concentric tube reactors (u12 � 1 mm) with 7.5 mm annular passage for heat trans
fer fluid flow have been considered as the physical system in the study. The numerical
setup is put to use to characterize the cyclic operation of coupled bed cooling system.
Further, a detailed sensitivity analysis of the designed bed thickness and operating parame
ters (thermic fluid flow rate, half-cycle time, initial hydrogen inventory, working tempera
tures) on the performance metrics viz. coefficient of performance and specific cooling
power have been studied.
Introduction high grade energy with a pair of identical MH alloys.
Metal hydride (MH) based hydrogen storage systems Gruen et al. [8] exploited the idea of a chemical heat
are playing increasingly important role in green pump which utilizes solar thermal energy to drive a
hydrogen storage and utilization with synergistic ther coupled MH system for cooling applications. They
mal management to improve the overall energy effi performed thermodynamic analysis on CaNi5/LaNi5
ciency [1]. MH and hydrogen pair can be employed pair as high temperature metal hydride (HTMH)/low
for a number of thermal management applications. temperature metal hydride (LTMH) and reported a
Apart from hydrogen storage [2, 3], MH-hydrogen static enthalpy-based coefficient of performance
pair can manifest thermal energy storage [4], cooling (COP) of 0.95. Later, Nishizaki et al. [9] performed
effects [5], hydrogen compression [6] and hydrogen mathematical calculations on a thermally driven MH
purification [7]. The metal-hydrogen dissociation reac based cooling system introducing the notion of sens
tion being endothermic, a cooling effect is produced
ible heat exchange between MH vessels as a means to
when hydrogen gets separated from the MH; on the
improve the system COP. They paired up
other hand, the association reaction is exothermic,
LaNi4.7Al0.3/LaNi5 as HTMH/LTMH, respectively.
which leads to heating effect. Depending upon the
energy input to the system, MH based cooling systems Since then, a plentiful of experimental investigations
can be operated in two modes, e.g., thermally driven on thermally driven systems [10–13] have been car
system and compressor driven system. In a thermally ried out. These investigations were primarily aimed at
driven system, low grade heat input is utilized to assessing the dependence of performance indices like
achieve a cooling effect using a pair of MHs. In com COP and specific cooling power (SCP) on the operat
pressor driven system, cooling can be achieved using ing and design parameters. The majority of the
CONTACT Professor Palanisamy Muthukumar pmkumar@iitg.ac.in Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati,
Guwahati, Assam 781039, India.
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