Abstract Liquid hydrogen tanks in hydrogen fuel cell systems contribute to storing cryogenic liquid hydrogen. However, the continuous sloshing of liquid hydrogen tanks causes an intense growth of the interior tank pressure, which increases the risk of hydrogen leakage. This study is performed by using the volume of fluid (VOF) method to numerically study the influences of different driving conditions on the fluid dynamics characteristics of the tank, including the acceleration magnitude, duration and filling ratio, as well as the performance of different baffles on the reduction of sloshing when the vehicle is starting or braking. The results show that the top of the tank has the highest likelihood of monitoring a peak in dynamic pressure under different acceleration magnitudes and durations, and is therefore most likely to be a dangerous point. Moreover, the peak dynamic pressure is typically observed at the moment of removal of acceleration, and the dynamic pressure fluctuation is more furious at monitoring points located near the vapor-liquid interface. As the filling ratio increases, the vertical sloshing force will not increase unlimitedly. The effect of different baffles on the fluid sloshing characteristics is quite different. Bow-shaped baffle has superior performance on suppressing the longitudinal shock of the fluid in the tank, while round-hole baffle has the ability to significantly reduce both the intensity of sloshing and the elevation extreme value of the liquid surface, and also decrease the peak longitudinal sloshing force. Comprehensive evaluation suggests that round-hole baffles present superior anti-sloshing performance.
Feng et al. (Fri,) studied this question.