Research on Flexural Performance of Curved Carbon Fiber Laminate Composites

Abstract

As a clean and efficient secondary energy, hydrogen energy is of great significance for building a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system. At present, high-pressure gaseous hydrogen storage systems for vehicles mostly use carbon fiber reinforced composite materials as the pressure-bearing materials of hydrogen storage vessel to obtain a lighter mass, so as to ensure the hydrogen storage system has a higher hydrogen storage density. However, unlike traditional steel hydrogen storage vessel, carbon fiber composite hydrogen storage vessel has low rigidity and is prone to bending and deformation during manufacture and use, which can cause safety accidents. Most of the previous studies on mechanical properties have focused on flat laminates, which are of limited help to the study of hydrogen storage vessel. In view of this situation, this work fabricated the curved carbon fiber laminates with the same manufacturing process as the hydrogen storage vessel and investigated their flexural performance using a combination of experimental and finite element methods. The bending experiments of curved carbon fiber laminates at different angles were carried out. And the finite element model for flexural performance prediction of curved carbon fiber laminates was established through validation against the experimental results. A parametric study was further performed to analyzed the influence of carbon fiber winding angle on the flexural performance. This work will provide reference and basis for the subsequent research on the flexural performance of carbon fiber composite hydrogen storage vessel.