Table 1
Investigated tank types and geometries.
| TANK | TANK TYPE | MAIN APPLICATION | VOLUME [L] | LENGTH [mm] | DIAMETER [mm] | PRESSURE [bar] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | III | Car | 58 | 1100 | 324 | 700 |
| B | III | Bus | 320 | 3128 | 417 | 350 |
| C | IV | Heavy-duty | 178 | 1720 | 440 | 350 |
Figure 1
Tank A in test rig (left) and Tank B in test chamber (right).
Figure 2
Scheme of test layout and sensors. Adapted from (Klopčič et al., 2024) according to CC-BY-4.0.
Table 2
Test matrix.
| TEST Nr. | TANK | T AMBIENT [°C] | T H2 [°C] | p START [bar] | p TARGET [bar] | APPR [bar/min] | TANK ORIENTATION |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | 6 | –40 | 30 | 700 | 111.7 | vertical, filling from below |
| 2 | A | 6 | –40 | 30 | 700 | 111.7 | horizontal |
| 3 | A | 6 | –40 | 30 | 700 | 111.7 | vertical, filling from above |
| 4 | B | 15 | –40 | 30 | 350 | 50 | horizontal |
| 5 | B | 15 | –20 | 30 | 350 | 50 | horizontal |
| 6 | B | 15 | 0 | 30 | 350 | 50 | horizontal |
| 7 | B | 15 | –40 | 30 | 350 | 75 | horizontal |
| 8 | B | 15 | –20 | 30 | 350 | 75 | horizontal |
| 9 | B | 15 | 0 | 30 | 350 | 75 | horizontal |
| 10 | B | 15 | –40 | 30 | 350 | 100 | horizontal |
| 11 | B | 15 | –20 | 30 | 350 | 100 | horizontal |
| 12 | B | 15 | 0 | 30 | 350 | 100 | horizontal |
| 13 | C | 30 | 15–18 | 5 | 438 | 86.6 | horizontal |
| 14 | C | 30 | 15–18 | 5 | 438 | 43.3 | horizontal |
| 15 | C | 30 | 15–18 | 100 | 438 | 66.7 | horizontal |
Figure 3
CAD model of the tank geometry with fluid and solid zones.
Figure 4
Computational mesh with local refinements.
Table 3
Material properties (Bourgeois et al., 2018; Li et al., 2019).
| TYPE III | TYPE IV | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LINER | OUTER LAYER | LINER | OUTER LAYER | |
| Material | Aluminum | CFRP | HDPE | CFRP |
| Density [kg/m3] | 2700 | 1494 | 947 | 1600 |
| Specific heat capacity [J/K/kg] | 900 | 938 | 1880 | 1400 |
| Thermal conductivity [W/k/m] | 202 | 1 | 0.3 | 1.5 |
Figure 5
Experimental results of Tank A.
Figure 6
Experimental results of Tank B. Adapted from (Klopčič et al., 2024) according to CC-BY-4.0.
Figure 7
Experimental results of Tank C.
Figure 8
Comparison of average and maximum temperature between experiment and simulation of Tank A.
Figure 9
Simulated temperature distribution of the three filling cases of Tank A.
Figure 10
Comparison of simulated average tank temperature with experiments (left) and temperature distribution (right).