Composite Gas Tank End-Fitting Structure for Higher Pressure

The tank is divided into distinct functional sections: a cylindrical central portion and truncated conical end portions. This segmentation allows each section to be optimized independently for its specific structural requirements, enabling the end portions to bear axial loads efficiently without requiring increased wall thickness throughout the entire tank, thus avoiding mass increase while maintaining high pressure capability.

The tank employs truncated conical end portions instead of traditional hemispherical ends. The conical geometry provides inherent axial strength through its tapered structure, which naturally resists compressive loads more effectively than hemispherical shapes. This geometric optimization allows the tank to withstand high pressures without requiring additional material, thereby maintaining low mass while achieving high gravimetric efficiency.

The tank employs a localized high-angle helical winding configuration specifically in the truncated conical end portions, rather than applying uniform low-angle windings throughout. This local optimization places structural reinforcement exactly where axial strength is needed most, achieving high pressure capability without the penalty of adding material across the entire tank surface, thus avoiding unnecessary weight increase.

The invention changes the winding angle parameter from traditional low-angle to high-angle helical windings in the end portions. This parameter change fundamentally alters the load-bearing characteristics of the fibre reinforcement, enabling it to resist axial compressive loads more effectively. The high-angle winding configuration provides superior axial strength per unit mass compared to low-angle windings, achieving high pressure capability without proportional mass increase.

The truncated conical geometry of the end portions provides inherent axial strength through its tapered shape, which naturally resists compressive loads. This geometric design eliminates the need for additional low-angle windings to provide axial strength, as the conical structure itself acts as a load-bearing element. The result is high axial strength without the penalty of added material mass.

The tank utilizes composite organic fibre windings arranged in a high-angle helical pattern, combining the geometric advantage of conical end portions with the tensile strength of fibre reinforcement. This composite approach creates a synergistic structure where the conical geometry provides axial load resistance and the fibre windings provide circumferential and diagonal support, achieving high axial strength without requiring additional low-angle winding layers that would increase mass.