Numerical Comparison of Dehydriding Behaviors of Full-Scale Depleted Uranium Beds Equipped with Copper Foam or Copper Fins

In this study, a three-dimensional transient metal hydride model is applied to two different depleted uranium (DU) bed designs. One bed is designed to contain 1.86 kg DU for a hydrogen isotope storage capacity of 70 g, and it is loaded with copper foam to enhance internal heat transfer. The other bed is designed to contain 5.26 kg DU for a hydrogen isotope storage capacity of 200 g, and it uses copper fins to enhance internal heat transfer. A numerical study is conducted to analyze the dehydriding characteristics of two different DU bed designs. A parallel computing methodology is used to effectively reduce the computational turnaround time involved for full-scale DU bed geometries. The detailed simulation results show the evolution of temperature and hydrogen-to-metal atomic ratio contours at different hydrogen desorption stages and reveal the different DU dehydriding behaviors of the two DU beds. In sum, the present work elucidates the effects of key bed design parameters and helps identify optimal DU bed design strategies to effectively charge and discharge hydrogen isotopes.