Stress analysis of nickel with nickel hydride

Charging hydrogen to nickel forms nickel hydride and induces micro-cracks near the boundary between the nickel matrix and nickel hydride, which distributed non-uniformly in the nickel matrix. A model that reproduces the non-uniform distribution of hydride was composed using the experimental observations at the cross-cut section. That is the two-dimensional model with the information toward the depth direction. As a result of the finite element analysis, there was the highest strain at the area where micro-crack was observed.