In this paper, an experimental and numerical study of a closed metal-hydrogen reactor is presented. The temperature and the pressure temporal evolutions within the reactor, which thermally solicited at a constant temperature, are experimentally investigated and analysed. In addition, a test of the validity of a theoretical model describing the dynamic behaviour of a closed reactor, by comparing the experimental and numerical results, has been done and a reasonable agreement is obtained. (c) 2006 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.