smartVessel - integration of fiber-based sensors during the production of hydrogen tanks

In the publicly funded research project smartVessel, the focus is set on the integration of fiber-based sensors during the production of hydrogen tanks for intelligent condition monitoring, lifetime prediction and evaluation. SimpaTec mainly takes over tasks regarding structural simulations for the designs of the designs of the tanks.

SmartVessel is a research project funded by the „Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz (BMWK)“. The aim of the project is to integrate fiber-based sensors during the production of hydrogen tanks for intelligent condition monitoring.
It is foreseeable that the use of hydrogen will increase significantly in the near future, be it as an alternative fuel for automotive applications, a substitute for natural gas or as an intermediate energy storage.
Hydrogen storage is one of the key technologies in this context. Since hydrogen has a very low density at ambient pressure, it is usually necessary to reduce the volume requirement by increasing the pressure when storing it at environmental temperature. The hydrogen containers are stored with an enormous internal pressure and therefore represent a considerable potential hazard. This is the reason why containers have to be extensively inspected at regular intervals, which greatly increases operating costs. To minimize this, within the smartVessel project one is exploring the technology for continuous structural health monitoring (SHM) using optical fibers integrated in the load-bearing vessel shell. The optical sensors connected to the fibers are able to provide time-dependent data, the evaluation of which records the condition of the vessel. SimpaTec accompanies this development with structural simulations of different tank designs. The focus is on the strength analysis of the proposed tank designs and the most target-oriented positioning of the optical fibers in the tank shell.