Pressure efficient tape wound hYDROgen storage (PYDRO)

全球对净零排放的推动要求所有工业部门转向清洁能源技术。氢作为一种清洁燃烧的燃料，在全球迈向净零排放未来的过程中至关重要。由于其密度低，因此单位体积的能量密度低，氢被压缩到非常高的压力水平（高达700bar），以促进空间高效的可燃性能源。随着交通运输行业向净零排放的转变，汽车和航空航天行业的成本和性能要求对下一代氢压力容器（HPVs）提出了新的严格规范。严格的空间和重量限制意味着需要高性能紧凑轻便的HPVs，同时，大批量生产需要低成本和低可变性的设计。长期以来，复合材料的使用一直被视为提供具有终极结构性能的轻量化解决方案的推动者。目前HPV制造技术的现状是使用带有圆顶端盖的圆柱形金属衬里，由碳纤维丝（丝缠绕）包裹。由于HPV的形状和负载路径非常复杂，使用当前技术的纤维放置远未达到最佳状态，通常会导致严重的工艺缺陷和大量材料堆积，从而在圆顶上增加了HPV的多余和牺牲质量。因此，目前最先进的细丝缠绕HPV处于加工过程中，不能导致优化解决方案，以促进HPV设计的一步变化。这种变化只能通过iCOMAT公司（Bristol大学衍生公司）的快速剪切（RTS）工艺来实现，这是世界上第一个自动化胶带铺设技术，可以无缺陷地引导纤维，极大地扩展了复合材料组件的设计空间。迄今为止，iCOMAT是英国第一家/唯一一家自动化复合材料制造设备供应商。RTS目前用于2.5D结构；然后形成复杂形状的2d预制件。这里的目标是进一步开发RTS，以实现高科技hpv制造的直接3D沉积。PYDRO项目将于2022年9月开始，为期12个月，届时将生产工业级3D-RTS原型头部，并制造用于汽车应用的演示HPV。总的来说，PYDRO将证明使用RTS可以制造高质量的hpv。通过将纤维放置在最佳方向，PYDRO有望在结构性能方面提供最先进的HPVs。

A global pull towards Net-Zero emissions demands the shift towards clean energy technologies in all industrial sectors. Hydrogen as a clean burning fuel is essential in the global journey towards a Net-Zero future. Due to its low density, and therefore, low energy density per­-unit­-volume, hydrogen is compressed to very high-­pressure levels (up to 700bar), to facilitate a space-­efficient combustible energy. With the shift to a Net­-Zero transportation sector, the cost and performance requirements of the automotive and aerospace sectors are placing new and stringent specifications on the next generation of hydrogen-­pressure-­vessels (HPVs). The stringent space and weight constraints imply the need for high-performance compact and light HPVs, and simultaneously, the high-­volume production rates require low-­cost and low­-variability designs.The use of composites has long been seen as an enabler to deliver lightweight solutions with ultimate structural performance. Current state-­of­-the-­art in HPV manufacture is to use a cylindrical metallic liner with domed end-caps that is overwrapped by carbon­-fibre filament (filament­-winding). As shapes and load-­paths of HPVs are very complex, placement of fibres with current techniques is far from optimal often leading to severe process-induced defects and significant material build-­up over the domes adding superfluous and sacrificial mass to the HPV. Hence, current state-­of-­the-­art filament-­wound HPVs are at a processing im­passe and cannot lead to the optimised solutions required to facilitate a step­-change in HPV design.Such a step-change is only possible through iCOMAT's (Bristol University spin-out) Rapid-Tow-Shearing (RTS) process, the world's first automated tape-laying technology that can fibre-steer without defects drastically expanding the design space of composite components. To date, iCOMAT is the first/only UK automated composites-manufacturing machine supplier. RTS is currently used for 2.5D structures; 2D-preforms that are then formed into complex shapes. The aim here is to further develop RTS to enable direct 3D-­deposition for the manufacture of high-tech HPVs. The PYDRO project will begin in September 2022 and runs for 12 months, by which point a prototype industrial grade 3D-RTS head will be produced and a demonstrator HPV used in automotive applications will be manufactured.Overall, PYDRO will demonstrate that high-­quality HPVs can be manufactured using RTS. By placing the fibres in the optimum orientation PYDRO is expected to deliver the new state-­of-­the-­art in HPVs in terms of structural performance.