Advanced Transient Plane Source Method for the Measurement of Thermal Properties of High Pressure Metal Hydrides

Metal hydrides are a promising material type for hydrogen storage in automotive applications, but thermal property data is needed to optimize the necessary heat exchangers. In the present work, the transient plane source method is integrated with a pressure vessel to measure these properties for metal hydride powder as a function of pressure during the hydrogenation process. The properties under investigation include effective thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, specific heat, and thermal contact resistance. The results of this work with oxidized Ti_1.1CrMn powder provide effective thermal conductivity values similar to data reported in literature for other metal hydride materials. The experimental measurements are also well modeled by the Zehner-Bauer-Schlu˝nder interpretive model for packed beds as a function of gas pressure. Extending the test method and ZBS model to estimate the contact resistance provides values that were two orders of magnitude less than measurements previously reported for other hydride materials.