Novel multi-center concave bottom for hydrogen storage cylinder

Hydrogen storage steel cylinders are the earliest and widely used hydrogen storage vessels. Fatigue cracks are easy to initiate and grow under hydrogen pressure, which threatens the safety of users. Although hydrogen has an effect on the initiation and growth of fatigue cracks, a reasonable structure of cylinder will make the stress distribution more reasonable and reduce the probability of crack initiation from the source. This paper researched the multi-center concave bottom for hydrogen storage cylinder. The geometric design parameters of the new base end are determined by the orthogonal design method. We analyze the effects of various parameters on the multi-center concave base end by using the finite element method. Based on the finite element analysis (FEA) of different structure, the results show that the stress concentration of new base end can be greatly reduced, and the minimum stress concentration factor is close to 1.1. The results provide valuable insights for designing and manufacturing the new type of seamless gas cylinder. The corresponding gas cylinder that we processed according to the simulation had successfully passed a series of tests.