Study on explosion forming of the liquid hydrogen spherical storage tank by GIMP simulation and experiment

Abstract

Spherical tanks with a volume of more than 200 m³ are usually used for the transport and storage of liquid hydrogen, liquid hydrogen spherical storage tanks are mainly manufactured using the split forming and welding technique, which has a long production cycle and high cost. To improve the production efficiency and manufacturing accuracy of spherical tanks and reduce the manufacturing cost, the theoretical model of explosion forming and the manufacturing technology of liquid hydrogen spherical storage tanks are proposed in this paper. Based on the energy criterion, the modeling law formula for the explosion forming of liquid hydrogen spherical tanks is derived. The explosion forming parameters are calculated according to the modeling law, numerical models of the generalized interpolation material point (GIMP) method and LS-DYNA finite element software are constructed according to the modeling law, which is used to simulate the explosion forming process of liquid hydrogen spherical tanks and to conduct the experiment on the explosion forming of scaling model for the liquid hydrogen storage tank. Following a quantitative comparative analysis, the numerical simulation of the explosion forming for liquid hydrogen spherical storage tanks is found to be in agreement with the experimental results. The results show that the modeling law, the numerical simulation of the GIMP method, and the scale model experiment of explosion forming can provide a theoretical basis and accurate technical parameters for the explosion forming of liquid hydrogen spherical storage tanks with various volumes.