Optimal design of metal hydride reactors based on CFD–Taguchi combined method

In this paper, Taguchi method, an optimization procedure successfully applied in many fields, was used to optimize the design parameters of the metal hydride thermal energy storage reactors. The performance of metal hydride reactors was evaluated by numerical simulations based on an established 3D CFD model. The parameters under investigation were the number of heat exchanger tubes (N), the heat exchanger tube diameter (do) and the heat exchanger tube pitch (S  ), all of which involved three levels. The optimization objective was to maximize the average heat storage rate per unit mass (Q˙ave) of the metal hydride thermal energy storage reactors. Performance statistics with regard to each parameter was obtained. The analysis results indicated that the most important parameter affecting Q˙ave was the number of heat exchanger tubes, followed by the heat exchanger tube diameter. The optimal conditions for the metal hydride reactor were determined by the CFD–Taguchi combined method. The optimal parameters of the reactor were given as following: N was 10, S was 18 mm and do was 8 mm, and accordingly the maximum value of Q˙ave was 3.287 W kg−1.

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► A 3D CFD model was established for metal hydride reactors.
► The CFD–Taguchi method was used to optimize the structure parameters of the reactors.
► The reactor performance is most sensitive to the number of heat exchanger tubes.
► The CFD–Taguchi method is found effective to search for the optimum design scheme.