Mechanical characteristics and parametric analysis of carbon fiber wound hydrogen cylinder for vehicles

Abstract

High pressure hydrogen storage is one of the most important ways of hydrogen energy storage and transportation. As the core component of high-pressure hydrogen storage, service strength and bearing capacity of carbon fiber wound hydrogen cylinder are very important for the safe transportation of hydrogen. In this paper, the simulation model of carbon fiber wound hydrogen cylinder is established, the stress distributions of Al-liner and winding layer are studied, and effects of self-tightening pressure, winding angle and thickness of winding layer on the stress distribution of hydrogen cylinder are studied. The results show that the designed carbon fiber wound cylinder meets the working requirements of 35 MPa. The self-tightening pressure can reduce the Al-liner stress in the working state and improve the utilization rate of the winding layer. With the use of hydrogen cylinders, the internal pressure decreases, and the maximum stress of the cylinders' middle part first decreases and then increases. The principal stress of winding layer decreases with the decrease of internal pressure. Increasing the winding angle of spiral layer can reduce the stress of Al-liner and the principal stress of hoop winding layer, but the principal stress of helix winding layer increases. With the increasing winding layer thickness, the hydrogen cylinder stress decreases gradually.