ANALYZIS OF THE FATIGUE LIFE OF HYDROGEN HIGH PRESSURE TANKS
Nevertheless, in order to respond to the economic a nd environmental criteria, hydrogen production and storage have to be improved. This wo rk focuses on gaseous storage under high pressure (700 bar) using a type III vessel (figure 1) that is to say composed of a metal liner – which prevents gas diffusion – and of a composite l aminate wrapped by filament winding – which is used as a mechanical strengthening piece. Th problem with this type of high pressure vessel is the early explosion when it is t ested to cyclic pressures. To solve this problem, the components – liner and composite – hav e to be well-proportioned.
Optimal design of a Type 3 hydrogen vessel: Part I—Analytic modelling of the cylindrical section
The present paper aims to study the cylindrical section of a Type 3 high-pressure hydrogen storage vessel, combining an aluminium liner which prevents gas diffusion and an overwrapped composite devoted to reinforce the structure. Today, this technique is widely used but still requires consistent time investments whenever a competitive solution, involving to definitely increase weight efficiency, is needed. The laminate composite is assumed to be an elasto-damage material whereas the liner behaves as an elasto-plastic material. Based on the classical laminate theory and on Hill's criterion to take into account the anisotropic plastic flow of the liner, the model provides an exact solution for stresses and strains on the cylindrical section of the vessel under thermomechanical static loading. Part I focuses on the theoretical background. The effect of the stacking sequence on the gap occurrence, on the residual stress magnitude and on the structure stiffness may then be investigated. This will be done and be compared with results of experiments which are carried out on prototypes in the second part of this paper before an optimization is performed.
Continuum damage mechanics for microcracked composites
Abstract Using a micromechanical model, the general form of the damage tensor is determined for a unifirectional fibre-reinforced composite, in the case of damage due to microcracking parallel to the fibre direction. All components of the damage tensor are evaluated, using a method based on the elastic energy changes. This preliminary investigation is applied to a model of continuum damage mechanics which predicts the behaviour of damaged homogeneous materials equivalent to the damaged unidirectional one. The laminate damage behaviour model is obtained from the classical laminate theory for an equivalent material. The prediction of the model is compared with the results of experimental investigations performed on a glass-epoxy laminate.