Cap Design of modular high pressure tanks

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Christian Mittelstedt
• Subject Area: Lightweight Construction, Textile Technology
• Term: from 2018 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 391936435

Fiber-reinforced plastics (frp) are ideally suited as material for high-pressure vessels. The orthotropic material properties allow to match the biaxial stress condition. This enables a lightweight design for pressure vessels, which is already widely used due to the significant weight reduction and the excellent resistance of frp to corrosion.Driven by strict recycling regulations in the automotive sector, the spreading of thermoplastic pre-pregs and the desire for an increase of functionality of pressure vessels, a new design for high-pressure containers will be developed. The new design thereby will compensate the disadvantages of the state of the art design of frp pressure vessels.The objective of this research project is a design study for modular high-pressure vessels. The aim of a new frp-design is to provide recyclable pressure vessels that furthermore simplify the connection to surrounding structures. The accessibility of the interior of the pressure vessel will be achieved through the modularity of the design. Cylinder and end closure will be manufactured separately, and thereby the functionality of the vessel will be increased. Due to the access of the interior the concept can be used to design piston accumulators, hydraulic accumulators and hydrogen storage with metal hydrides. In order to achieve these advantages, a study of different concepts for end closures for modular pressure vessels and the corresponding joining techniques has to be carried out.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr.-Ing. Helmut Schürmann