Experimental and numerical analyses of a hydrogen and deuterium storage system

This paper conducts an experiment and a three-dimensional (3D) modeling study for the absorption of hydrogen and deuterium on a storage tank with titanium sponge bed in order to simulate the real working conditions of a tritium storage system prior to tritium service. The 3D model is further numerically implemented and experimentally validated. The model is composed of an energy balance, mass balance and momentum balance and hydriding reaction kinetics. These differential equations are solved using finite element method. The experimental consisting in absorption of hydrogen and deuterium gas was made in batch made, under vacuum condition. Before absorption, an activation of the titanium bed was performed. A number of loading and releasing operations typically required in tritium handling loops were conducted using one bed containing a well determined quantity of titanium sponge. A comparison between theoretical results and experimental data has found that the gas was not uniformly absorbed on the metal bed volume. This work provides an important platform to understand the phenomena during tritium absorption on a titanium storage bed and the development of a real-time tritium storage control system.