Numerical study on thermodynamic characteristics of large-scale liquid hydrogen tank with baffles under sloshing conditions

The control of the evaporation rate is essential to the long-distance transportation of liquid hydrogen (LH₂). This paper conducts a numerical investigation of the thermodynamic characteristics in tanks with baffles under LH₂ sloshing conditions by establishing a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. The pressurization rate and vapor-liquid interface sloshing behavior predicted by the numerical model is validated against experimental data. The effects of baffles, amplitude, frequency, and storage pressure on thermodynamic characteristics such as temperature, pressurization rate, and evaporation rate of the LH₂ tank under sinusoidal sloshing are analyzed in detail. The simulation results suggest that adding baffles can effectively suppress the pressure fluctuation of LH₂ under sloshing conditions, but baffles as a “thermal bridge” accelerate the pressurization rate in the tank. Adding baffles during smooth transportation accelerates the pressurization rate. The baffles gradually demonstrate the effect of suppressing the pressurization rate as the acceleration amplitude increases. Assuming that the LH₂ evaporation rate is stable for a certain value, the daily evaporation rates in the LH₂ tank account for 2.59 % and 5.13 % when the maximum acceleration is 5.92 m/s² and 9.87 m/s², respectively, which contradicts the long-term storage goal of LH₂. The slower the sloshing frequency, the higher the maximum liquid phase level in the tank, and the faster the evaporation rate. The sloshing frequency has little effect on the LH₂ pressurization and evaporation rates compared to the amplitude. The growth of pressure decreases from 139.9 Pa to 85.62 Pa for a period of 15 s when the storage pressure in the tank increases from 0.1 MPa to 0.6 MPa. This study provides guidlines for the in-depth investigation of the thermodynamic behavior in LH₂ tanks during transportation.