Design and analysis of stiffener in the liner of large volume type IV hydrogen storage tank to reduce the risk of collapse instability

Abstract The plastic liner of type IV hydrogen storage tank is prone to collapse instability under a large pressure differential. How to improve the stability of the liner of type IV hydrogen storage tank under pressure differential has always been a difficult problem in the development of type IV hydrogen storage tank. In this paper, according to the relevant theory of the stability of the liner, the ultimate load of the liner collapse instability is maximized by setting the stiffener in the liner, so as to reduce the risk of the liner collapse instability under the pressure differential. With the help of finite element software, the influence of different structure, size and arrangement of stiffeners on the ultimate load of the liner is analyzed. The research shows that the addition of stiffeners in the liner effectively improves the ultimate load of the liner. The different arrangement of stiffeners will guide the liner to change to different failure waveforms. The longitudinal stiffener has little effect on the stability of the liner, and it is not recommended to use. In this paper, when four groups of stiffeners with an interval of 200 mm are added in the transverse direction of the liner structure, the ultimate load of collapse instability is the best. Compared with the liner without stiffeners, the ultimate load is increased by 285.6%.