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The purpose of this study is to investigate the
wall strain variation on the reaction vessel of Mg2Ni alloy
at various combinations of location and direction during cyclic
hydriding/dehydriding processes. The reaction vessel was made of AISI
316 stainless steel. The pressure conditions for the absorption and
desorption steps were set at 3 MPa and vacuum, respectively, at 300
oC. The particle morphology of the Mg2Ni alloy before activation
and after a 45-cycle test was analyzed with scanning electron microscopy
(SEM).
Results showed that the strain accumulation
phenomenon in the hoop strain disappeared at the later hydriding/dehydriding
cycles due to agglomeration of the Mg2Ni alloy powders no
matter at the location of 1/10 or 3/10 height of the vessel. The cycle
number at the disappearance of the strain accumulation phenomenon in the
hoop strain at the location of 1/10 height of the vessel was smaller
than that of the 3/10 height by 5 cycles. This was ascribed to a
continuous increase in the height of an agglomerated disk formed at the
bottom of the reaction vessel. With regard to the strain increment in a
hydriding/dehydriding cycle, the hoop strain increment was drastically
reduced toward zero at the later testing cycles while the axial strain
increment was gradually reduced in a smaller rate throughout the test.
This could be attributed to less and less absorption activities taking
place in the continuously growing agglomerated Mg2Ni alloy
disk formed at the bottom of the reaction vessel. The SEM observations
showed that a pulverization mechanism caused not only the corners of the
Mg2Ni alloy powders to change from sharp to smooth and round but also
the particle size of the Mg2Ni powders to decrease from 74 to 1 £gm after
activation and a 45-cycle test.
After supplying sufficient hydrogen gas,
the hoop strain on vessel wall was increased linearly with progressive
cycles throughout the testing period. When the Mg2Ni
alloypowders were agglomerated, the hoop strain increment was reduced.
It indicates that the volume expansion induced by the Mg2Ni hydride
powders was reduced by agglomeration.
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