Minimum Fire Size for Hydrogen Storage Tank Fire Test Protocol and Design Guides for Hydrogen Bus Established via Risk-Based Approach

As part of the United Nations Global Technical Regulation No. 13 (UN GTR #13), vehicle fire safety is validated using a localized and engulfing fire test methodology and currently, updates are being considered in the on-going Phase 2 development stage. The GTR#13 fire test is designed to verify the performance of a hydrogen storage system of preventing rupture when exposed to service-terminating condition of fire situation. The test is conducted in two stages—localized flame exposure at a location most challenging for thermally-activated pressure relief device(s) (TPRDs) to respond for 10 min. followed by engulfing fire exposure until the system vents and the pressure falls to less than 1 MPa or until “time out” (30 min. for light-duty vehicle containers and 60 min. for heavy-duty vehicle containers). The rationale behind this two-stage fire test is to ensure that even when fire sizes are small and TPRDs are not responding the containers have fire resistance to withstand or fire sensitivity to respond to a localized fire to avoid system rupture. In this study, appropriate fire sizes for localized and engulfing fire tests in GTR#13 are evaluated by considering actual fire conditions in a hydrogen-powered electric city bus. Quantitative risk analysis is conducted to develop various fire accident scenarios including regular bus fire, battery fire, and hydrogen leak fire. Frequency and severity analyses are performed to determine the minimum fire size required in GTR#13 fire test and the design guides to ensure hydrogen storage tank safety in hydrogen-powered electric city buses.