Square-Section Pressure Vessel for Better Space Utilization
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing pressure vessels for hydrogen vehicles face challenges in minimizing size and carbon fiber composite material usage while maintaining structural rigidity and spatial utilization, due to their cylindrical shape and the need for sufficient storage space and slenderness ratio, which limits design freedom and increases costs.
Innovation Solution
A pressure vessel design featuring a barrel part with a square cross-section, first and second nozzle members at opposite ends, and clamp rings that lock these members to the barrel part, allowing for reduced diameter and eliminating dome parts to distribute stress evenly, thereby minimizing carbon fiber composite material usage and enhancing structural rigidity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If a cylindrical pressure vessel with dome parts is used, then structural integrity is maintained, but spatial utilization deteriorates and design freedom is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The pressure vessel is divided into a barrel part with square cross-section and separate dome parts that are selectively removable. This segmentation allows the vessel to maintain structural integrity when needed while enabling space optimization by removing dome parts when not required for specific applications.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of the conventional cylindrical shape with dome ends, the invention inverts the approach by using a square cross-section barrel and making dome parts optional rather than integral. This inversion of the traditional design paradigm enables both improved spatial utilization and design flexibility.
2Volume of moving object
If the diameter of the pressure vessel is decreased, then spatial utilization improves, but storage space and slenderness ratio deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The pressure vessel adopts an asymmetric square cross-section instead of a symmetric circular cross-section. This asymmetric shape allows the vessel to better fit into available spaces and improves spatial utilization while maintaining adequate storage capacity through optimized dimensional proportions.
3Ease of manufacture
If the thickness of the carbon fiber layer is decreased, then manufacturing cost is reduced, but structural rigidity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The carbon fiber reinforcement is applied selectively to specific areas where stress concentration occurs, such as the barrel part and transition zones, rather than uniformly throughout the entire vessel. This localized reinforcement maintains structural rigidity while minimizing the total amount of expensive carbon fiber material required.
4Reliability
If more carbon fiber composite material is used to ensure structural rigidity of the dome part, then reliability improves, but manufacturing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The dome parts are extracted from the essential structure and made optional components. This allows the pressure vessel to achieve reliable structural performance with minimal carbon fiber material in the main barrel, while dome parts can be added only when specific application requirements demand them, thereby controlling manufacturing costs.
Data Source
AI summary
A pressure vessel includes: a barrel part disposed in a predefined square area and having a diameter corresponding to a length of one side of the square area; a first nozzle member disposed at one end of the barrel part; a second nozzle member disposed at an opposite end of the barrel part; and clamp rings disposed in the square area, positioned outside the barrel part, and configured to lock the first and second nozzle members to the barrel part, thereby improving spatial utilization and a degree of design freedom.