WaVe

Within the project WaVe, IVW is developing a lightweight optimized FRP pressure vessel tank for the storage of gaseous hydrogen. The tank will be used for the novel hydrogen combustion engine for commercial vehicles in the medium-duty segment. In deviation from FRP pressure tank designs, which are manufactured using a conventional winding process, the optimized tank design can be manufactured very narrowly with maximum lightweight quality and makes optimum use of the installation space thanks to the high packing density. The transfer of the load from the cylindrical FRP area into the metallic dome or fitting is realized by means of the so-called "IVW load introduction". The load is transferred from the longitudinal fiber layers (0° layers) into grooves of the metallic component layer by layer. Circumferential layers press the longitudinal layers into the grooves by means of a preload applied during manufacture and by minimal "sliding" during operation. The tensile stress in the circumferential layers increases by "sliding" onto the larger cross-section of the grooves under both, compressive and tensile loads. This likewise increases the compression of the longitudinal layers when load increases. This design allows the load multiplication factor in the load introduction to be minimized to about 1.4 compared to about 3-10 for conventional load introduction variants. This enables maximum lightweight construction. The aim of the WaVe project is to transfer this principle to the manufacture of FRP hydrogen tanks. In parallel, the manufacturing process will be developed in which, in contrast to the conventional winding process, only 0° and 90° layers are present without undulation. The tanks will be used in a so-called 7-tank module, where one master tank will be equipped with an On Tank Valve (OTV) for refueling. The master tank will supply hydrogen to the connected tanks.

Within the WaVe project, novel lightweight optimized FRP pressure tanks are developed for the storage of gaseous hydrogen.

UNIMOG in action: https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/rheinland-pfalz/wasserstoffmotor-unimog-tu-kaiserslautern-100.html