Performance index optimization of pressure vessels manufactured by filament winding technology

Abstract

Filament-wound pressure vessels represent the proper choice to obtain good mechanical properties and lightweight. The pressure vessel geometry is generally cylindrical and the wall is composed of a ‘liner’ and a ‘shell.’ The liner holds the gas and guards the shell from chemical attacks. The filament-wound shell aims to withstand the hydrostatic load of pressure gas. The shell design has to be defined in observance of both fibers stratification methodology and design structural criteria. For years, pressure vessel design primarily focused on mass; space saving features during pressure vessel design was usually a secondary concern unless specifically required by the customer. Now, more emphasis have being assigned to design light weight pressure vessels that also maximizes use of available space for industry finding such as space on a spacecraft, as well as mass, is at premium. For this reason, it is very important to optimize together the index of performance and packaging of gas storage system. This work aims to develop a parametric method to optimize the index of performance as a function of one or more pressure vessels; in this way, it is possible to optimize also the packaging of the gas storage system.