Characteristics of Heat Transfer and Temperature Rise of Hydrogen during Rapid Hydrogen Filling at High Pressure

An experiment has been done to measure the rise in temperature of a gas during filling a tank at high pressure. The experimental condition is that filling gases are nitrogen and hydrogen at a pressure of 5 to 35 MPa and at a filling mass of G = 45 to 324 g/min for hydrogen. The temperatures are measured either horizontally or vertically at five positions in the tank. It is found that heat loss transferred from compressed gas to the tank wall has a significant effect on the rise in the filled gas temperature. The heat transfer coefficient is estimated after the end of filling and is about alpha(h) = 270 W/(m(2)K) for the hydrogen at 35 MPa. A theoretical procedure is proposed to calculate the temperature increase of the gas on a basis of assumption that the gas temperature in the tank is uniform at any time, and the heat transfer coefficient is given. The calculation shows that the temperature is in reasonable agreement with the measured temperatures by assuming ah = 500 W/(m(2)K) during the filling of hydrogen at 35 MPa, although the estimated heat loss after the end of filling becomes larger than the actual one. (C) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.