Cooling Performance Improvement of the Heat Driven Type Metal Hydride Refrigerator -Heat Transfer Enhancement Influence of Metal Hydride Sheet Loading into a Metal Hydride Particle Bed

摘要

In the refrigeration and air conditioning fields, the demands of energy conservation and renewable energy have been increased recently. In this study, we aim at the development of the heat driven type metal hydride (abbr., MH) that can be driven by the low temperature exhaust or solar heat under 100°C. In order to use this system commercially, heat transfer enhancement of MH particle bed, activation characteristic improvement and production cost reduction of MH must be achieved. In this study, we use the two heat transfer enhancement methods for improving the low effective thermal conductivity of MH particle bed. One is the MH sheet and another is the brush type carbon fiber. MH sheet is inserted into MH layer. And, by this method, we aim not only to enhance the heat transfer of MH particle bed but also to achieve the temperature uniformity of MH particle one. The cooling performance of our MH refrigeration system is estimated by measurement and calculation.