CFD Modelling of Startup Fuelling Phase Accounting for All Hydrogen Refuelling Station Components

Further development of hydrogen-fuelled transport and associated infrastructure requires fundamentally based, validated and publicly accepted models for fuelling protocol development, particularly for heavy-duty transport applications where protocols are not available yet. This study aims to use computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for modelling the entire hydrogen refuelling station (HRS) including all its components starting from high-pressure (HP) tanks, a mass flow meter, pressure control valve (PCV), a heat exchanger (HE), nozzle, hose, breakaway and up to 3 separate onboard tanks. The paper focuses on the initial phase of the refuelling procedure, in which the main purpose is to check for leaks in the fuelling line and determine if it is safe to start fuelling. The simulation results are validated against the only publicly available data on hydrogen fuelling by Kuroki and co-authors (2021) from the NREL hydrogen fuelling station experiment. The simulation results – mass flow rate dynamics as well as pressure and temperature at different station locations - show good agreement with the measured experimental data. The development of such models is crucial for the further advancement of hydrogen-fuelled transport and infrastructure, and this study presents a step towards this goal.