Unsteady 2D-mathematical model for predicting the dynamic behavior of a metal hydride water pump

Abstract

In this paper, an unsteady mathematical model for evaluating the performance of a metal hydride water pump was developed, along with a computation code that was successfully validated against experimental data. A variety of pump operating conditions were simulated numerically using this code. Results show that increasing the heating fluid temperature from 313 K to 363 K, the heat transfer coefficient from 10 Wm−2K−1 to 500 Wm−2K−1, and the initial concentration of hydrogen from 0.9 to 0.98 can reduce pumping time by 93 %, 75 %, and 18 %, respectively. Additionally, it has been found that there is an optimal pumping head that provides the highest pumping efficiency for a particular heating fluid temperature. There is also an optimal initial hydrogen concentration and pumping head point that results in the best performance of the pump.

Keywords

• Water pump
• Metal hydride
• Thermal energy
• Numerical simulation
• Unsteady model