Heat Generation from H₂/D₂ Pressurization of Nanoparticles: Simulation of the Experiments on COMSOL Multiphysics®

A. Osouf[1], G. Miley[2], B. Stunkard[3], T. Patel[3], E. Ziehm[2], K. Kyu-Jung[3], A. Krishnamurthy[1]
[1]Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
[2]Department of Nuclear, Plasma & Radiological Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
[3]University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
Published in 2013

A COMSOL Multiphysics® model of our apparatus has been created in order to simulate the pressurizations of our nanoparticles by Deuterium. Using reference measurements during a cooling process, we calibrated the model so that its thermal aspects reflect the ones of our experimental set up.

To reproduce the pressurizations, the following variables are parameters : the location of the heat source and the conductivity of the nanoparticles. All these parameters influence simultaneously the thermal profiles.

From the first simulations the coherent thermal conductivity of the nanoparticles was found lower than expected and the heat source does not appear uniformly distributed. The team will now focus on developing a more accurate model of heat and power release due to the pressurizations.

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