Numerical modelling of transient heat transfer of hydrogen composite cylinders subjected to fire impingement

• Published in: International journal of hydrogen energy Vol. 44; no. 21; pp. 11247 - 11258
• Main Authors: Xu, B.P., Cheng, C.L., Wen, J.X.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 23-04-2019
• Subjects: Composite cylinders; Conjugate heat transfer; Decomposition; Hydrogen storage; Large eddy simulation; Conjugate heat transfer; Hydrogen storage; Decomposition; Composite cylinders; Large eddy simulation
• ISSN: 0360-3199; 1879-3487
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2019.02.229

To improve the current design standards of the hydrogen composite cylinders, it is essential to understand the thermal response of the hydrogen composite cylinders subjected to fire impingement. In the present study, a fully coupled conjugate heat transfer model based on a multi-region and multi-physics approach is proposed for modelling the transient heat transfer behaviour of composite cylinders subjected to fire impingement. The fire scenario is modelled using the in-house version of FireFOAM, the large eddy simulation (LES) based fire solver within the frame of OpenFOAM. Three dimensional governing equations based on the finite volume method are written to model the heat transfer through the regions of composite laminate, liner and pressurized hydrogen, respectively. The governing equations are solved sequentially with temperature-dependent material properties and coupled interface boundary conditions. The proposed conjugate heat transfer model is validated against a bonfire test of a commercial Type-4 cylinder and its transient heat transfer behaviour is also studied.
•Simple model with 4 parameters for predicting overpressure in vented explosions.•Two of these parameters only depend on fuel and are pre-tabulated.•Other two parameters are simple functions of enclosure geometry.•Predictions either more accurate or comparable with other models in literature.•Reasonably good predictions for realistic accidental scenarios.