COmposite COnformal LIquid H2 Tank (COCOLIH2T)

氢（H2）等替代燃料被视为在航空零排放未来中发挥核心作用，但H2的渗透水平将在很大程度上取决于科学和技术突破，以克服H2动力飞机带来的挑战。未来飞机机载氢气的安全高效存储是氢气技术的重要推动因素，也将是航空航天行业面临的最复杂的航空航天工程挑战之一。对现有最先进解决方案的改进包括更好地利用可用空间进行燃料储存，适当的隔热技术以最大限度地减少热泄漏，持续安全操作，以及通过低重量材料（如热固性或热塑性复合材料）减轻重量，同时解决这些材料的固有挑战（渗透性，微裂纹，热疲劳）。由柯林斯航空航天公司领导的COCOLIH2T联盟提出了一个颠覆性的概念，重点是减少油箱重量和体积对飞机的影响，同时确保系统安全。COCOLIH2T不仅将为航空领域开发一种安全的复合材料和真空绝缘液氢储罐，而且还将通过新型制造技术设计和制造保形储罐，从而实现生产能耗减少60%以上，生产时间减少至少50%，从而显著降低制造成本。此外，基于多材料热塑性复合材料概念的所提出的油箱结构旨在促进飞机结构集成，以支持与传统油箱配置相比的总体系统重量减轻。COCOLIH2T将解决的关键挑战是产生一个可行的和负担得起的共形变截面箱形罐的设计，同时尽可能减少汽化泄漏。COCOLIH2T的整个系统将于2025年在TRL4上进行演示。

Alternative fuels such as hydrogen (H2) are seen as playing a central role in a zero-emission future for aviation, but the level of penetration for H2 will depend heavily on scientific and technological breakthroughs to overcome the challenges posed by H2 powered aircraft. The safe and efficient storage of H2 on-board future aircraft is the essential enabler of H2 technologies and will be one of the most complex aerospace engineering challenges that the industry has ever faced. Improvements to existing state-of-the-art solutions includes a better utilization of the available space for fuel storage, adequate insulation techniques to minimize heat leak, continued safe operations, and a weight reduction through low-weight materials, such as thermoset or thermoplastic composites, all while addressing those materials’ inherent challenges (permeability, microcracking, thermal fatigue). COCOLIH2T consortium led by Collins Aerospace is proposing a disruptive concept focused on reducing the impact of the tank’s weight and volume within an aircraft, while ensuring system safety. COCOLIH2T will not only develop a safe composite and vacuum insulated LH2 tank for the aviation sector but has the ambition to go beyond by designing and manufacturing a conformal tank through novel fabrication technologies enabling a reduction of more than 60% in production energy consumption, at least 50% in production time leading to significantly lower manufacturing costs. Additionally, the proposed structure of the tank, based on a multi-material thermoplastic composite concept, is intended to facilitate aircraft structural integration to support overall system weight reduction compared with conventional tank configurations. The key challenge that COCOLIH2T will tackle is the generation of a feasible and affordable design of a conformal variable section box-shape tank while minimizing the boil-off leakages wherever possible. COCOLIH2T’s overall system will be demonstrated at TRL4 by 2025.