International Journal of Hydrogen Energy
2020

Numerical investigation on chill-down and thermal stress characteristics of a LH₂ tank during ground filling

Y. Ma^a,b, K. Zhu^a,b, Y.Z. Li^a, F.S. Xie^a
aXi’an Jiaotong University, Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenic Engineering, Xi’an, 710049, China
^bSouthern University of Science and Technology, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen, 518055, China

摘要：

To investigate the thermal and structural characteristics of a flight-scale LH₂ tank during ground fillings, a CFD model and a structural analysis model are established to simulated the chill-down process and the induced thermal stress behavior of the tank, respectively. Results show that, at the early stage of filling, a severe temperature gradient appears at the liquid level, leading to a remarkable local concentration of thermal stress, while the maximal thermal deformation is at the outlet region. After the local wall is chilled down sufficiently, the temperature jump at the interface vanishes as well as the local thermal stress, while the maximal thermal deformation is located at the middle height of tank. The thermal stress is most serious at the beginning stage of filling and the maximum appears at the tank bottom. Moreover, the non-uniformity of the temperature distribution and the average thermal stress level within the tank wall both increase with the filling rate. At a filling rate of 7.5 kg·s⁻¹, the maximal thermal stress and thermal deformation of the target tank are more than 70 MPa and 30 mm.