A Thermal-Mechanical Analysis Model for Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel for Hydrogen During Fast Filling

Composite overwrapped pressure vessel (COPV) is considered to be the most promising storage tank for hydrogen. Filling the COPV to high pressure within 3–5 minutes generates temperature increment due to negative Joule-Thomson coefficient and compression effect of hydrogen. This temperature increment induces a non-uniform temperature distribution in the COPV. The difference between the physical properties of inner metallic liner and outer composite will produce thermal stress. In this work a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is built to simulate the temperature increment during fast filling of the COPV. A three-dimensional thermal-mechanical finite element model for COPV is set up. The temperature distribution of the COPV by the CFD model is input into the thermal-mechanical model to analyze the stress distribution during the fast filling. This thermal-mechanical analysis model will provide technical support for the design of COPV.