Stress effects on hydrogen permeation through tubular multilayer membranes: Modeling and simulation

• An investigation of the effect of stress on hydrogen permeation through tubular multilayer membranes is presented.
• The analysis is carried out by using a continuum model for the interaction between stress and diffusion.
• The model accounts stress-dependent jump on hydrogen concentration across an interface between two dissimilar materials.
• A finite-element model is developed and implemented using COMSOL Multiphysics.
• Numerical results are presented for single and multilayer membranes.

This paper deals with modeling and simulation of stress effects on hydrogen permeation through tubular multilayer membranes. In this case, it is shown that hydrogen concentration undergoes a stress-dependent jump across an interface between two materials, a result that follows from the continuity of the chemical potential and its dependence of the stress. A finite-element model, in which hydrogen concentration is approximated by using discontinuous functions, and the corresponding interface condition is accounted for in a weak manner, is developed and implemented using COMSOL Multiphysics. Numerical results for single-layer and multi-layer membranes are presented and discussed.