Statistical safety evaluation method for composite high-pressure hydrogen vessels considering stacking sequence effect and fiber strength development rate

We developed a method to evaluate the failure rate (FR) for the cylindrical part of a composite high-pressure hydrogen vessel with arbitrary dimensions, number of layers, and stacking sequences by giving the mean and standard deviation of the fiber strength development rate and the stiffness reduction rate under various damage types. The FR is the rate at which the residual strength of a vessel is below the maximum service pressure (125%NWP). Assuming a case in which the vessel is designed with the damage-tolerance design, the FR was calculated for the case of all-layer matrix cracking (assuming beginning-of-life) and fiber failure in two layers in addition to the matrix cracking (assuming the most severe damage that is tolerable during service). The observations demonstrate the importance of improving the probability of detection for non-destructive testing in ensuring the safety of damage-tolerance-designed vessels after fiber failure. The mean strength of the fibers mainly affected the mean residual strength of the composite high-pressure hydrogen vessels when the dimensions and stacking sequence remained unchanged.