Thermoplastic Composite Compressed Gas Storage (CGS) Tanks

This report summarizes the progress made on utilizing polyamide carbon fiber tapes for composite overwrapped pressure vessels (CPVs) using Automated Fiber Placement (AFP). This project is joint development project run through the Institute for Advance Composite Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI) with DuPont, Steelhead Composites, University of Dayton Research Institute, and the Composites Prototyping Center. Over the course of this program, the Team developed and/or demonstrated the materials and processes that are required to produce vessels for compressed gas storage, including polyamide matrix formulation, unidirectional polyamide/carbon fiber tape production, and automated fiber placement on a vessel liner. In addition, a cost of manufacture analysis was performed that compares Type III and Type IV vessels made with both thermoplastic and thermoset chemistries. This report summarizes the myriad of technical advances made during this project, culminating with production and testing of an aluminum-lined Type III pressure vessel. Each step was optimized locally so as to produce the best material. The end result was a test vessel that, while demonstrating some of the benefits of thermoplastic matrix composites, did not perform as well as those produced by filament winding of carbon fiber/epoxy prepregs. This was most likely due to the Team’s focus on local optimization rather than globally optimizing the entire process from beginning to end. Should further work be contemplated, a more focused effort on global optimization should be pursued.