Lumped Parameter Modeling of SAE J2601 Hydrogen Fueling Tests

Abstract

The safety of hydrogen storage is essential for the development of fuel cell vehicles. A mathematical model for a compressed hydrogen storage tank is established based on the mass conservation equation, the energy conservation equation and the real gas equation of state. Using the Matlab/Simulink platform, a dual-zone lumped parameter model, which divides the tank into a hydrogen gas zone and a tank wall zone, is established. The initial conditions of the MC Default method hydrogen filling from SAE J2601 are utilized in the lumped parameter model for numerical simulation. Five cases are studied, including two different tanks. One case used the Lookup table for hydrogen refueling, and four cases used the MC Default method for fueling. The hydrogen gas temperature, wall temperature, pressure in the tank and state of charge are obtained during the fueling process. The simulated results show that the dual-zone lumped parameter model can well predict the temperature, pressure and state of charge (SOC) for Type IV tanks with volumes of 249 L and 117 L during refueling. By using the averaged heat transfer coefficient (80 W/(m2·K)) between gas and wall, and the constant heat transfer coefficient (20 W/(m2·K)) between wall and environment, the gas temperature and pressure of our dual-zone lumped parameter model show good agreement with the experiment. The maximum difference between simulated and experimental wall temperatures for five cases is around 2 °C. The experimental wall temperatures were measured on the external surface of the tank, while the simulated wall temperature of the dual-zone lumped parameter model is representative of a mean temperature averaged alone with the radial direction.