Frame Structure Design of 40-Foot High Pressure and Large Capacity Hydrogen Storage Tube Bundle Container for Road Transportation

Abstract As a kind of clean energy with good prospect, the demand of trans-regional transportation of hydrogen is increasing rapidly. However, due to the difficulty and high cost of pipeline transportation, tube bundle containers are more used to transport hydrogen. As the fixing device of tube bundle container, the frame structure should not only ensure that the gas cylinder can be fixed, but also meet the requirements of stiffness and strength. In order to improve the efficiency of hydrogen transportation, a new frame structure of 40-foot high pressure and large capacity tube bundle container for road transportation was designed. There are two groups of tube bundles at the front and rear of the tube bundle container, carrying 18 hydrogen storage bottles. The total hydrogen storage capacity is more than 1000kg and the pressure is 52MPa. The design process is as follows: firstly, the stress analysis of the original frame structure under four inertia force conditions was carried out, and it was found that the structure was difficult to meet the strength requirements for road transportation. Then, the beam distribution of tube bundle container frame structure was preliminarily determined by using the method of topology optimization and the geometric model of the optimized frame structure was remodeled according to the topology optimization results. Finally, the static analysis of the frame structure under various driving inertia force loads was carried out by ANSYS Workbench finite element analysis software. The results show that the designed tube bundle container frame structure meets the requirements of strength. This work provides a reference for the design and safety evaluation of similar tube bundle container frame structure products.