Study on the stress accumulation characteristics of a rotating metal hydride reactor

The reactor is the core device used in guaranteeing the alloy's stable high-level reversible hydrogen storage. This work investigates a rotating reactor as new structure to alleviate stress accumulation using inertial force and counterforce, compared to typical statics reactors. The rotating reactor's strain and response exhibited notable differences in the whole five stages at the 8th absorption/desorption cycle. In the cycle of vertical reactor, plastic deformation began by the 4th cycle, followed by a rapid linear increase in strain values leading swiftly to failure in the 19th cycle. When inverted, plastic deformation began by the 17th cycle and fracture occurred after 29th cycles, and for rotating reactor at 1.39 rpm, the curve of stress accumulation changed gently, sudden fracture occurred after 36th cycles. Particle size distribution of rotating reactor was skewed toward the large size as a herald of more strong anti-pulverization. Meanwhile, the expansion area was located in lower part, and the bulging notably shifted upwards compared to vertical reactor. This was attributed to the fact that the dynamic inertial force and counterforce effect improved the uniformity of alloy filling and prevented the formation of high-density areas at the representative bottom obviously alleviating local stress concentration phenomena. © 2024 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC