Design Optimisation of Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel Through Finite Element Analysis

Abstract

COPVs are currently used at NASA to contain high-pressure fluids in propulsion, science experiments and life support applications. These COPVs have a significant weight advantage over all-metal vessels; but, as compared to all-metal vessels, COPVs require unique design, manufacturing, and test requirements. The most significant difference from metal pressure vessel designs is that COPVs involve a much more complex mechanical understanding due to the interplay between the composite overwrap and the inner liner. Often only limited analysis is performed to obtain an initial design, and then the design is refined through number of “build and burst” iterations. However, the cost in material and resources to fabricate multiple test specimens is extremely prohibitive. To avoid these high cost and time for build and burst iterations, FEA is often employed in an attempt to reduce the number of iterations required. FEA process becomes more of a design confirmation effort rather than a design iteration effort. In this research, we aimed to establish a detailed design optimization of a complete COPV through Finite Element simulation.