Thermomechanics of hydrogen storage in metallic hydrides: modeling and analysis (Q478713)

The authors have suggested the thermodynamically consistent mathematical model for hydrogen adsorption/desorption in metal hydrides in the form of an initial-boundary value problem for a system of nonlinear partial differential equations, derived on the base of the standard-force balance, the microforce balance, the balance of mass for hydrogen and the balance of internal energy. This model takes into account besides of hydrogen diffusion possible phase transformations (at a low concentration hydrogen atoms form a dilute interstitial solid-solution (\(\alpha\)-phase)), temperature variation (hydrogeneration is exotermic and reversible: when the metal is exposed to hydrogen, heat is generated; conversely, heating the hydride drives the reaction in the reverse direction), strain and stress (hydrogeneration is accompanied by large expansion of the unit cell volume of the crystal-``swelling''). The definition of a weak solution to this system is given and its existence is proved at the usage of the constructed semi-implicit discretization scheme.