NUMERICAL ANALYSIS FOR A SELF-PRESSURIZED LIQUEFIED HYDROGEN STORAGE TANK USING OPENFOAM

S. Ahn; S. Park

doi:10.6112/kscfe.2026.31.3.174

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2026 Vol.31, Issue 3 Preview Page Next Page

Original Article

NUMERICAL ANALYSIS FOR A SELF-PRESSURIZED LIQUEFIED HYDROGEN STORAGE TANK USING OPENFOAM OpenFOAM을 활용한 액화수소 저장탱크 자가가압 수치해석

30 September 2026. pp. 174-189

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Abstract

As liquefied hydrogen (LH₂) emerges as a key future energy carrier, reliable prediction of its phase-change behavior during self-pressurization is essential for the design and operation of LH₂ storage and receiving terminals. In this study, the phase change within a self-pressurized LH₂ tank was numerically investigated using OpenFOAM. The simulation modeled the self-pressurizing tank tested at the NASA Multipurpose Hydrogen Test Bed (MHTB). Two solvers were compared: an Euler-Euler two-fluid solver, which solves governing equations for each phase separately, and a Volume of Fluid (VOF) solver, which treats both phases with a single set of equations while capturing the interface. To examine turbulence effects, results from the k-ω SST, buoyant k-ε, and LES-WALE models were evaluated against those of laminar flow. For phase change, the Lee and Schrage models were assessed. The Euler-Euler solver slightly overpredicted the tank pressure, whereas the VOF solver demonstrated closer agreement with the experimental data. Among the turbulence treatments, both the laminar assumption and LES captured the experimental trends well, while the Schrage model exhibited superior performance among the phase- change models. Overall, the internal pressure of the MHTB was predicted with a mean absolute error of approximately 1.8 kPa, and key phenomena, including boil-off gas (BOG), boil-off rate (BOR), thermal stratification, and internal flow fields, were accurately reproduced.

Keywords

오픈폼(OpenFOAM)

전산유체역학 (Computational Fluid Dynamics, CFD)

저장탱크(Storage tank)

액화수소(Liquefied hydrogen)

극저온 유체(Cryogenic fluid)

상변화(Phase change)

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Information

Publisher :Korean Society for Computational Fluids Engineering
Publisher(Ko) :한국전산유체공학회
Journal Title :Journal of Computational Fluids Engineering
Journal Title(Ko) :한국전산유체공학회지
Volume : 31
No :3
Pages :174-189
Received Date : 2026-08-21
Revised Date : 2026-09-09
Accepted Date : 2026-09-09
DOI :https://doi.org/10.6112/kscfe.2026.31.3.174

Journal of Computational Fluids Engineering ISSN:1598-6071(Print) 3022-6252(Online) 한국전산유체공학회지

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