Title: A Mechanical Test Frame for Property Evaluations at Cryogenic Temperature

Authors: Daniel R. Merkel, Gayaneh Petrossian, Dustin Clelland and Kevin Simmons

DOI: 10.33599/nasampe/s.20.0277

Abstract: On-board storage of hydrogen fuel has been designated as a limiting factor in the advancement of fuel cell technologies in the automotive industry. The use of cryo-compressed Type III pressure vessels presents one option to overcome this barrier. These multi-material vessels will be expected to perform at high pressure and extreme low temperatures, which creates a complex engineering design challenge. Many materials exhibit highly temperature-dependent properties, which must be considered for the efficient design of cryo-compressed pressure vessels. Complicating this issue, mechanical property data at cryogenic temperatures is sparse. This technical paper provides a description of a test apparatus commissioned specifically to help address this shortcoming. A mechanical test frame was retrofitted with a continuous flow cryostat capable to evaluate various mechanical properties throughout a broad temperature range of 25 °C to -269 °C with a load limit of 10 kN. An investigation of the thermomechanical properties of an epoxy resin was carried out as a demonstration.

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Conference: SAMPE 2020 | Virtual Series

Publication Date: 2020/06/01

SKU: TP20-0000000277

Pages: 9

Price: FREE