OPTIMUM DESIGN OF A TOROIDAL PRESSURE VESSEL OF COMPOSITE MATERIAL FOR GAS (CNG) POWERED VEHICLES

Abstract

In the present work a design is made, using numerical simulations, with the finite element method (FEM) a linear elastic analysis will be performed for the optimal design of a toroidal pressure vessel resistant, lightweight and capable of storing compressed natural gas (CNG) for vehicles. For the design the material AS / 3501 (carbon fiber and epoxy matrix) is used, since there are studies that indicate that, with this type of material, high resistances and better performance have been obtained than with metallic materials. In the analysis, the influence exerted by the angular orientation of the sheets on the strength of the laminate will be determined, as well as the variation of tension, deformation and displacement that occurs in the toroid when subjected to pressure, until the criterion of failure indicate it. The optimization of the volume of the material, will be made with the metaheuristic algorithm called Particles Swarm Optimization (PSO), which will use Threads in Java for the execution of the scripts developed in ANSYS for the analysis of the FEM and with which will be reduced computing times improving to the optimizer. Key Words: pressure vessel, toroidal shape, finite elements, numerical simulations, optimization, threads.