A predictive modeling tool for damage analysis and design of hydrogen storage composite pressure vessels

In this paper, a predictive modeling tool is developed for damage analysis and design of hydrogen (H₂) storage composite pressure vessels. It integrates micromechanics of matrix cracking into a continuum damage mechanics (CDM) description for damage evolution, and three-dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) modeling of the vessel structural response. At the scale of the composite layer (mesoscale), the temperature-dependent stiffness reduction law in terms of the damage variable for transverse matrix cracking is computed using an Eshelby-Mori-Tanaka approach (EMTA) for the initial composite thermoelastic properties and a self-consistent model for the stiffness reduction as a function of the damage variable. While transverse matrix cracking obeying a damage evolution relation can progressively evolve from an initiation to a saturation state, fiber failure is predicted by a micromechanical fiber rupture criterion that accounts for the fiber strength and matrix stress that can be computed within EMTA. The implementation of this integrated multiscale modeling model into a 3D FE formulation enables damage analysis and design of H₂ storage composite pressure vessels. The developed tool is illustrated through 3D damage analyses of a cryogenically compressed H₂ storage vessel model subjected to thermomechanical loadings to investigate effects of the helical layer fiber orientation and loading scenario on damage development, vessel integrity and burst pressure.