Finite Element Analysis of Hydrogen Storage Composite Fuel Tank

Composite materials are engineered or naturally occurring materials made from two or more constituent materials with significantly different physical or chemical properties which remain separate and distinct within the finished structure. Composite materials are highly utilized in various fields like aerospace structure, marine, automobile, etc. On-board storage of hydrogen is a major challenge in the advancement of future fuel cell based automobile propulsion system. One standard is the pressurized storage composite tanks. Hydrogen exhibits the highest heating value per mass of all chemical fuels. Furthermore, hydrogen is regenerative and environmentally friendly. There are two reasons why hydrogen is not the major fuel of todays energy consumption. First of all, hydrogen is just an energy carrier. And, although it is the most abundant element in the universe, it has to be produced, since on earth it only occurs in the form of water and hydrocarbons. This implies that we have to pay for the energy, which results in a difficult economic dilemma because ever since the industrial revolution we have become used to consuming energy for free. The second difficulty with hydrogen as an energy carrier is its low critical temperature of 33 K (i. e. hydrogen is a gas at ambient temperature). For mobile and in many cases also for stationary applications the volumetric and gravimetric density of hydrogen in a storage material is crucial. Hydrogen can be stored using six different methods and phenomena (1) High-pressure gas cylinders (up to 800 bar), (2) Liquid hydrogen in cryogenic tanks (at 21 K), (3) Adsorbed hydrogen on materials with a large specific surface area (at T