成人抖阴

Partnership opportunity

We are inviting SMEs and large businesses to become partners in the development and outputs of this four-year programme.

Concept

Liquid hydrogen (LH₂), allows for smaller, lighter and more efficient energy storage than gaseous hydrogen. However, storing, transporting and using LH₂ is challenging because of uncertainties in materials behaviour at cryogenic temperatures, specifically:

• lack of materials certification/testing standards,
• large variations in mechanical properties,
• uncertain influence of hydrogen embrittlement,
• lack of widespread testing facilities able to test with specimens directly in contact with LH₂.

These uncertainties hinder the development of LH₂-ready components such as storage vessels, valves, compressors, pipelines and others, thus delaying the adoption of hydrogen-ready solutions and the overall hydrogen-economy.

This project, focusing on a few alloys (selected by the steering committee) and by testing directly in  LH₂, will:

• produce a validated procedure or best practice guidance to initiate and steer future standards,
• generate tensile, fatigue, and crack growth data to inform the design and certification of LH₂ components,
• investigate whether exposure to LH₂ affects mechanical properties at 20 kelvin (K), without considering the effects of absorbed hydrogen.

Materials and testing

Up to three alloys will be tested in the programme via tensile, fatigue and fracture mechanics approaches. The specific grades and testing conditions will be selected by the steering committee before the commencement of the programme.

Programme management

A steering committee will be established involving at least one representative from each contributing (Tier 1) partner organisation and the management team. The committee will meet quarterly with the main aim of:

• establishing test materials, conditions and priority,
• assessing output from the tests,
• modifying test approach as required,
• disseminate results.

Approach

The four-year programme will be delivered in three work packages (WP):

In WP1, slow strain rate testing will be performed, both in LH₂ and in He at 20K and assessed as a function of strain rate. Full fatigue and fracture mechanics data will then be quantified in WP2. In parallel, WP3 will focus on standardisation of the tensile, fatigue and fracture mechanics testing method in LH2 and cryogenic temperatures. Microstructural examination, including fractography, SEM, XRD, EBSD and TEM, will be performed throughout the work.

Package options

To get involved there are two levels available: