Study of Thermal Behavior on Multi-tank Cascade System for Ship-borne Hydrogen Storage Tank Using a New Design Configuration

Hydrogen tanks (HT) with different connection modes are an integral part of the shipborne hydrogen fuel cell system. To ensure the safe and reliable operation of the shipborne multi-tank cascade system, this study innovatively develops 3D models of four different connection modes for the shipborne multi-tank cascade system, namely Type-22, Type-211, Type-121, and Type-112. Through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) numerical simulation, the variations in parameters of different multi-tank cascade systems during the hydrogen storage process are analyzed. The results indicate that the maximum temperature of Type-112 is 271.107K, which is 2.220%, 4.779%, and 3.993% lower than that of Type-22, Type-211, and Type-121, respectively, and thus the optimal parameters such as the initial temperature in the tank and pre-cooling temperature are derived. Type-112's maximum temperature is reduced by 14.02% and 16.66% compared to systems connected solely in series or in parallel. The study identifies the optimal structure and reasonable hydrogen storage parameters, effectively reducing heat generation during the refueling process while optimizing space utilization, thereby strongly ensuring the stability of hydrogen storage and opening up new avenues for addressing related hydrogen storage issues in the future.