Rapid prototyping of a heat management device for hydride forming alloys by additive manufacturing

Abstract

In this work we explore the use of Fused Deposition Modeling for the rapid prototyping of a device for thermal management and stress build-up prevention for hydride based hydrogen containers. The analysis was focused on thermal performance of these components. We tested a family of devices based on a honeycomb-like design with a uniform wall width but with different cell sizes, therefore achieving various thermal conduction capacities. The devices were tested in a purpose-made hydrogen container using LaNi5 as hydride forming alloy. To help establish the design criteria for these devises we have performed simulations applying a homogeneous model and solving the transient one-dimensional radial problem. We verified that the simulations closely reproduce the experimental results, concluding that the homogeneous model is suitable for the dimensions of the devices studied.