International Journal of Refrigeration 150 (2023) 47–58

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International Journal of Refrigeration

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijrefrig

Numerical simulation on pressure evolution process of liquid hydrogen

storage tank with active cryogenic cooling
Simulation numérique du processus d’évolution de pression du réservoir de stockage
d’hydrogène liquide avec refroidissement cryogénique actif

Chuancong Wan a, b, c, Shaolong Zhu a, b, c, Chaoyue Shi a, b, c, Shiran Bao a, b, c, Xiaoqin Zhi a, b, c,
Limin Qiu a, b, c, Kai Wang a, b, c, *
a
Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China
b
Key Laboratory of Refrigeration and Cryogenic Technology of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou, 310027, China
c
Jiaxing Research Institute, Zhejiang University, Jiaxing, 314031, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Inevitable evaporation process occurring in liquid hydrogen storage may bring about safety risks associated with
Liquid hydrogen over-pressure and hydrogen discharge. Using a cryogenic refrigerator to compensate for the heat leakage is
Lossless storage expected to eliminate the risk of hydrogen vent, realizing long-term lossless storage. Presently, active lossless
Storage tank
storage technology applied on civil fields has rarely been studied. This paper presents a numerical study on the
Active cooling
CFD
dynamic evolution process within an active cooling system of a liquid hydrogen tank. The accuracy of the model
is validated with an average deviation of 0.47%. During the self-pressurized process, the maximum temperature
Mots clés:
Hydrogène liquide
difference is more than 26 K in the ullage zone. After cooling capacity being introduced, a three-stage depres­
Stockage sans perte surization process appears. Minor cooling capacity that is less than heat leakage can still realize pressure
Réservoir de stockage management. Further analyses show two operating modes similar to gravity heat pipes and thermal redis­
Refroidissement actif tributors occurring in the ullage and the liquid zone, respectively. This work suggests the effectiveness of active
CFD cooling on controlling the ullage pressure, which may be applicable to future hydrogen refueling stations and
intercity hydrogen transportation.

1. Introduction
Hydrogen energy is widely expected to play a vital role in decar­
bonizing the global energy structure. In 2020, the development of
hydrogen energy in the world is still full of resilience under the COVID-
19 epidemic. Recently, ten countries successively issued hydrogen-
energy-related policies. For example, in China, if the number of fuel
cell vehicles that meet the technical requirements in cities reaches 1000
and the number of hydrogen refueling stations is more than 15, the
central government would provide subsidies for the partial price of
hydrogen. In addition, China’s National Development and Reform
Commission and the National Energy Administration jointly issued the
medium- and long-term plan for The Development Of Hydrogen Energy
Industry (2021–2035), a top-level strategy for developing hydrogen
energy in China (NDRC and NEA, 2022). In the EU, the newly revised
Renewable Energy Act requires that the proportion of green hydrogen in
the total hydrogen consumption in the industry sector should be no less
than 50% in 2030 (Hydrogen – Analysis, 2022). The Department Of En­
ergy Hydrogen Program Plan, a report released by the US Energy Agency
in 2022, mentioned that the energy agency’s hydrogen program would
cooperate with various energy departments to accelerate hydrogen en­
ergy research and promote the development of relevant technologies
and industries (McQueen et al., 2020); UK Hydrogen Strategy, a hydrogen
industry research book submitted by the UK Commercial Energy In­
dustry Department to the parliament, comprehensively evaluates the
preparation, storage, transportation, application, market construction
and economic interests of hydrogen energy in the UK (UK BEIS. and
Department for Business, 2021).
To sum up, clean production, low-cost storage and transportation,

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: kaiwang19@zju.edu.cn (K. Wang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2023.01.012
Received 17 August 2022; Received in revised form 17 November 2022; Accepted 14 January 2023
Available online 23 January 2023
0140-7007/© 2023 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.
C. Wan et al. International Journal of Refrigeration 150 (2023) 47–58

Nomenclature ρ density
Nu Nusselt number
cp specific heat capacity p pressure
Dsm Sauter mean diameter Pr Prandtl number
EV experiment value q heat flux
F force R0 characteristic radius
g gravitational acceleration Ra Rayleigh number
hfg latent heat value Sm mass source term
k thermal conductivity κ the curvature of the interface
Sh energy source term μ dynamic viscosity
SV simulation value ν kinematic viscosity
T temperature ϕ physical quantities
t time
uRa equivalent velocity Subscripts
c condensation
→v velocity
e evaporation
y+ wall Y plus
eff effectivity
Greek symbols g gas
α volume fraction l liquid
β thermal expansion coefficient q primary phase
βc condensation relaxation factor sat saturated
βe evaporation relaxation factor w wall
γ coefficient of Lee model 0 initial state
σ surface tension

and efficient utilization of hydrogen energy have reached the consensus
of energy development in many major economies. However, there is still
a long way to go before the hydrogen energy is used at a large scale.
Among them, the mismatches between production and demand -
hydrogen energy origin place, and end-user place - are the critical fac­
tors restricting the large-scale use of hydrogen energy (IEA, 2019). As an
important intermediate link between production and use, hydrogen
storage with high efficiency and low energy consumption can flexibly
allocate hydrogen resources, which is a practical way to resolve this
mismatch problem.
The ideal hydrogen storage mode should have the characteristics of
high safety, large capacity, low cost, and ease to use. Currently,
hydrogen storage technology mainly includes compressed gaseous
hydrogen storage, liquid hydrogen storage, cryo-compressed hydrogen
storage, solid hydrogen storage, liquid organic hydrogen storage, and
other paths (Rivard et al., 2019). Among them, solid-state and organic
hydrogen storage technologies are still in the stage of technical verifi­
cation. In contrast, compressed gaseous hydrogen storage technology
has been technically mature (Rivard et al., 2019), while the feasibility of
liquid hydrogen and cryo-compressed hydrogen storage technologies
has been verified in the aerospace field and some civil vehicle fields [8,
9]. Comparisons of different hydrogen storage technologies are sum­
marized in Table 1. Among them, liquid hydrogen storage has the ad­
vantages of high density and security, which is especially suitable for
long-distance and heavy-duty transportation applications, such as
heavy trucks, intercity buses, etc. In addition, as most impurities would
be solidified and separated entirely at the temperature of liquid
hydrogen, liquid hydrogen storage is more conducive to meeting the
stringent requirements of hydrogen fuel cells for the content of trace
impurities in hydrogen (Zhu et al., 2023). Therefore, the development of
liquid hydrogen storage and transportation technologies has become
necessary in the hydrogen energy field.
The temperature of liquid hydrogen under the ambient pressure is -
253 ℃ (Rivard et al., 2019), and heat leakage to the storage tank is
inevitable during storage and transportation. Liquid hydrogen has a low
latent heat of vaporization; thus, it is easily evaporated. The heat
leakage of the storage tank will lead to a pressurization process in the
tank. When the pressure exceeds the maximum rated pressure, the safety
valve will release the accumulated gas hydrogen into the ambient.
However, as the ignition energy of hydrogen is extremely low (0.02 mJ)
and the range of deflagration limit is extensive, exhausting hydrogen gas
directly to the ambient would pose risks, particularly in a closed envi­
ronment (Rivard et al., 2019).
In order to eliminate hydrogen evacuation during liquid hydrogen
storage and maintain the storage quality of liquid hydrogen, NASA
performed experimental studies on zero boil-off storage at the end of the
20th century to meet the long-term storage needs of cryogenic pro­
pellants in orbit for Mars exploration. The lossless storage of liquid
hydrogen is typically realized by coupling a cryogenic refrigerator to the
liquid hydrogen storage tank. With the help of excellent passive

Table 1
Comparisons of main hydrogen storage methods (Rivard et al., 2019).
Method GED1 VED2 Temperature Pressure Remarks
(wt%) (MJ/L) (K) (barg)

Compressed 5.7 4.9 293 700 Current industry standard

Liquid 7.5 6.4 20 0 Boil-off constitutes major disadvantage
Cryo-compressed 5.4 4.0 40–80 300 Boil-off constitutes major disadvantage
LOHC3 8.5 7 293 0 Highly endo/exothermal requires processing plant and catalyst. Not suitable for mobility
Metal hydrides 7.6 13.2 260–425 20 Requires thermal management system
1
GED: Gravimetric Energy Density.
2
VED: Volumetric Energy Density.
3
LOHC: Liquid organic hydrogen carriers.

48
C. Wan et al.
insulation, active cryogenic cooling using a cryogenic refrigerator can
recondense the evaporated hydrogen and actively compensate for the
heat leakage into the storage tank.
At present, the lossless storage technology is divided into passive and
active types. Passive technologies such as advanced multilayer insu­
lation (MLI), vapor-cooled shields (VCS) (Shi et al., 2023), does not
consume any energy, so its application is restricted because it can only
achieve no-vent storage in a limited time span. Active technologies
require external cooling capacity to cover heat leakage, which brings
disadvantages of higher cost and design difficulties. Generally, the
integration of passive and active technologies will form a hybrid system
so as to minimize the system mass while preserving the quantity and
quality of cryogenic cryogens(Salerno and Kittel, 1999). In 1998, NASA
achieved lossless storage of liquid hydrogen in a 1.4-m3 storage tank
using a 17.5 W@18 K refrigerator. The tank pressure gradually dropped
over a 61-h test period (Hastings et al., 2001). In 2002, Hastings et al.
(Hedayat et al., 2002) verified the feasibility of active lossless storage by
coupling a spray rod and a refrigeration unit on the Multipurpose Liquid
Hydrogen Test Bed (MHTB) tank constructed jointly by NASA Ames
Research Center (ARC), Glenn Research Center (GRC) and Marshall
Space Flight Center (MSFC). In 2003, Notardonato et al. (Notardonato
et al., 2004) proposed to couple a cryogenic refrigerator to a 150-L liquid
hydrogen storage tank. The liquid hydrogen was cooled via a heat pipe
connected to the cold head of the refrigerator. It was proved that the
system coupled with the refrigerator could densify the liquid hydrogen
and realize zero boil-off storage. In 2017, Notardonato et al. (Nota­
rdonato et al., 2017) briefly summarized NASA’s effort of concept
verification on the Integrated Refrigeration and Storage System (IRAS).
It has been proven that the large-scale IRAS (volume: 125 m3) can
maintain zero boil-off for 13 months using a coupled cryogenic heat
exchanger.
Due to the difficulties of accessing liquid hydrogen in markets,
alternative cryogens are typically adopted to verify lossless storage
technology. Liu et al. (Liu et al., 2018b) built a experiment rig to find the
optimal pressurization and refrigeration performance of thermodynamic
vent with R123. The evolution curve of the ullage pressure demon­
strated the feasibility of pressure management via thermodynamic vent
system (TVS). Although the test was proceeded at room temperatures,
the results can also offer valuable reference for cryogenic applications.
Wang et al. [15] operated the TVS within two modes, the mixing-only
and the mixing-venting modes, in which the result showed that the
wider pressure control bands contributed to the higher figure of merit
(FOM).
In order to predict the pressure evolution inside a cryogenic tank,
which provides the design basis for lossless storage systems, many
studies were devoted to developing lumped numerical models for stor­
age tanks. Van Dresar et al. (Van Dresar et al., 1992) assumed that the
fluid in the tank is homogeneous and established a thermodynamic
model to calculate the self-pressurized rate of the ullage zone in a
spherical tank. However, due to its unrealistic homogeneous assump­
tion, no information about the thermal stratification can be provided,
and this method deviates significantly from the experimental results.
Barsi et al. (Barsi and Kassemi, 2013) established a three-zone model
based on the phase distribution of the tank and further coupled it with
the tank wall model to explore the self-pressurized and pressure control
processes. Compared with the homogeneous model, the prediction ac­
curacy has been significantly improved.
Due to the capability of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools for
physical field extraction and visualization, many studies tried to utilize
it to study pressurized processes of cryogenic tanks. Kartuzova et al.
(Kartuzova et al., 2014) adopted CFD to study the self-pressurized and
pressure control process by spraying chilled fluid in a cryogenic tank,
and tracked the gas-liquid interface and spray particles through the VOF
and Euler-Lagrange methods. The results showed a high prediction ac­
curacy with the experimental data from the NASA’s MHTB. Zuo et al.
(Zuo et al., 2021) studied the influence of condensation and evaporation
49
International Journal of Refrigeration 150 (2023) 47–58
coefficients embedded in different models on the simulation accuracy of
the self-pressurized process. It was found that Lee and Tanasawa model
showed superiority over energy jump model. Zhou et al. (Zhou et al.,
2019) conducted a CFD study on the influence of different rated pressure
on lossless storage time of a liquid hydrogen storage tank. A three-stage
evaporation process was observed in the storage tank: pressure rise,
constant liquid level, and the stable evaporation stage. Ho et al. (Ho and
Rahman, 2007) proposed a coupled structure of refrigerator and heat
pipe for actively cooling the liquid hydrogen in a liquid hydrogen tank.
A simplified numerical model was built, in which the whole fluid stayed
at single-phase state without considering the density change in cryogen.
Liu et al. (Liu et al., 2018a) developed a coupled numerical model to
investigate the thermal distribution in a liquid hydrogen tank under the
sinusoidal sloshing excitation. The results showed that fluid sloshing
promotes the mixing of the vapor and liquid and enhances the heat
exchange. The above literature review shows that most existing studies
were focused on self-pressurized processes, while studies on the pressure
control and depressurized processes in liquid hydrogen storage tanks are
scarce.
In summary, many studies about lossless liquid hydrogen storage
technology were limited in space mission fields. With the target of car­
bon neutrality recently proposed, the interest for ground applications of
liquid hydrogen is growing. TVS is widely applied for pressure man­
agement in aerospace because of the minor gravity acceleration, and it
contains a cryogenic pump, a spray bar, heat exchangers, etc. The
coupling of multiple equipment leads to the challenges of design and
cost saving. Distinctively, in ground scenarios under normal gravity
acceleration, the clear interface between different phases can be
observed in the storage tank. As a result, TVS is no more an optimal
solution in ground systems. It is necessary to consider other pressure
management solutions which should ideally have features of simplicity,
compactness and effectiveness for commercial adoption. Referring to
helium lossless storage in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) equip­
ment, liquid hydrogen storage tanks coupled with small refrigerators are
attractive for long-term lossless and safe storage of liquid hydrogen.
This paper establishes a numerical model to study the self-
pressurized and depressurization process via active cooling and using
the MHTB tank as a case study. Firstly, the model’s prediction accuracy
is validated by comparison with NASA’s ground experimental results
(Hastings et al., 2003). Then, the self-pressurized and depressurization
processes of a cryogenic tank coupled with a refrigerator are simulated
and analyzed. Based on detailed analyses of the simulated physical
fields, including thermal stratifications, stream lines, mass transfer rate,
and vorticity in the ullage zone, the formation mechanism of pressure
evolution is revealed. The fluid state evolution is described by specific
monitoring points to account for the thermal redistribution mechanism
of heat leakage from storage tanks.
2. Methodology
The research logic is shown in Fig. 1. Firstly, the mesh is generated to
meet the requirement of interface capturing. Then, the relationship
between saturated pressure and temperature is embedded in the Lee
model for high prediction accuracy. The validity of the simulation is
checked by comparison to the experiment result of the MHTB. Mesh
independence is then verified. Finally, the self-pressurized and depres­
surization processes are studied. Under various cooling capacities, fluid
thermal behavior and the fundamental mechanisms resulting in the
pressure reduction are analyzed.
2.1. Physical model
As the experimental results of NASA’s MHTB are selected as the
benchmark for model verification, the physical model geometry is
simplified according to the liquid hydrogen storage tank in the MHTB.
The geometric diagram of the liquid hydrogen storage tank is shown in
C. Wan et al. International Journal of Refrigeration 150 (2023) 47–58

Fig. 1. The research roadmap adopted in this study.

simulation, two-dimensional axisymmetric method is applied to find a

balance between the simulation time and accuracy.
The mass, momentum, and energy conversation equations are as
follows:
∂ρ
+ ∇(ρ→
v ) = Sm (2.1)
∂t

∂ → ( ( )) →
(ρ v ) + ∇(ρ→
v→v ) = − ∇p + ∇ μeff ∇→
v + ∇vT + ρ→
g + F vol (2.2)
∂t

∂ ( )
(ρE) + ∇(→
v (ρE + p)) = ∇ keff ∇T + Sh (2.3)
∂t

where Sh is the energy source term, and its expression is Sh = Sm hlg ; hlg is
the latent heat of evaporation; Sm is the mass source term.
The gas phase is treated as a compressible fluid, and the ideal gas
Fig. 2. The schematic of the liquid hydrogen tank.
model is adopted for the gas state equation. The liquid is regarded as an
incompressible fluid, i.e., the density is only a function of temperature.
Fig. 2. The whole storage tank is composed of a cylinder with a height The relationship between density and temperature meets the linear
and diameter of 3.05 m and a couple of 2:1 standard elliptical heads. The equation of Boussinesq approximation:
total volume of the storage tank is 18.09 m3, and the surface area is
35.74 m2. The interval between the inner tank and the outer tank is filled ρ = ρ0 [1 − β(T − T0 )] (2.4)
with multi-layer insulation materials. The interlayer vacuum is 10–3 Pa ( )
to ensure that the heat leakage of the storage tank is maintained at a low 1 ∂ρ
β=− (2.5)
level. The liquid level height in the storage tank is taken as the same ρ ∂T P

value as the experiment, i.e., 90%. The total heat leakage of tank is 54 W.
where β is the coefficient of thermal expansion at T0 , 1/K.
By utilizing uniform heat flux conditions for the simulation, Kartuzova
et al. (Kartuzova et al., 2014) achieved good prediction accuracy.
2.2.2. VOF method
Therefore, the same method is adopted here to describe the heat leakage
VOF (Volume of Fluid) is an interface tracking method for the
into the tank.
multiphase flow. It uses phase fraction to represent the proportion of any
phase in a finite volume. For any mesh, the sum of the phase fractions of
2.2. Numerical model
each phase in that should be equal to unity. In the transient algorithm of
CFD, the phase fraction field of the next time step is firstly calculated,
2.2.1. Governing equations
and then the calculated phase fraction field is used to update the mo­
Since the self-pressurized process of the liquid hydrogen storage tank
mentum prediction equation and Pressure- Poisson equation by iteration
and the depressurization process resulted from active cooling are un­
until the preset residual value is met. The phase fraction field is deter­
steady processes, the transient method should be adopted in CFD sim­
mined by Eq. (2.6):
ulations. The time scale of the self-pressurization and depressurization
process is several hours or even days, three-dimensional full-scale
simulation will require a huge computing resource. To simplify the

50
C. Wan et al. International Journal of Refrigeration 150 (2023) 47–58

[ ( ) ]
1 ∂( ) 2.2.4. Computational method
αq ρq + ∇ αq ρq →
v q = Sm (2.6)
ρq ∂t Due to continuous heat leakage on the tank wall, strong shear flow
will be formed near the wall and in the central zone of the tank. The
where αq is the phase fraction of the primary phase, Sm is a customisable turbulence model selected is k-omega SST model, which combines the
source item. features of k-omega turbulence model and k-epsilon turbulence model.
Based on the phase fraction concept, physical properties of a specific The internal region inside the boundary layer is k-omega model, and it
mesh are determined by Eq. (2.7): switches to k-epsilon model in free shear flow. Therefore, it can well
explain the effect of the main shear force of the inverse pressure gradient
ϕ = αg ϕg + αl ϕl (2.7) in the boundary region (Kassemi et al., 2016).
In the simulation process, the second-order upwind scheme is used to
where ϕ refers to physical properties of the fluid, such as density, vis­
discretize each item. PISO pressure velocity coupling method is applied
cosity, thermal conductivity, etc.; subscripts g and l represent the gas and
to calculate the velocity and pressure fields. Phase fraction equation is
liquid phases.
compressed using the compressive discrete scheme. The slope limiter is
The surface tension of the phase interface is described by the
used to judge the interface reconstruction method. The variable time
continuous surface force (CSF) model and added to the volume force of
step is adopted, and the global maximum Courant number is set to unity
the momentum equation, which is expressed as follows:
or less than five for robustness.
( )
→ ρl αl kg ∇αg + ρg αg kl ∇αl ∇αl Compared to k-epsilon model, k-omega SST model has no wall
F vol = σlv ( )/ ,k = ∇ (2.8) function to simplify boundary mesh number. Therefore, the laminar
ρl + ρg 2 |∇αl |
viscous layer must contain one or more layers of mesh, and the judgment
where k is the curvature of the interface. criterion is y+ < 5. The equivalent velocity of natural convection can be
calculated by Rayleigh number Ra:
2.2.3. Phase change model
gcp βρ2 qw R40 cp μ u2Ra R20
The phase fraction and pressure-velocity equations are not closed Ra = 2
= Pr⋅Gr = ⋅ (2.12)
λμ λ ν2
because the source term in the phase equation is still missing. Therefore,
it is necessary to introduce the phase change model to close the
where Pr is Prandtl number, Gr is Grashov number, R0 is the charac­
equation.
teristic length, and uRa is the equivalent velocity. The mesh thickness of
For evaporation and condensation processes, the kinetic theory of
the first layer of gas and liquid phase should not be greater than 0.5 mm
gases model (KTG) has been widely used in recent years (Kharangate
and 0.14 mm, respectively. ICEM and ANSYS mesh software are used for
and Mudawar, 2017). It is also known as Hertz Knudsen model, which is
mesh generation. The grid thickness of the first boundary layer of the
developed based on the Maxwell Boltzmann distribution theory of gas
grid is 0.0625 mm. The axisymmetric geometry is used, as shown in
molecules (Knudsen and Partington, 1935). Then, based on certain as­
Fig. 3. After mesh independence test (see Fig. 4), the total number of
sumptions and simplification, KTG model evolved into Tanasawa model
grids of 26,018 is finally selected.
(Tanasawa, 1991), Lee model (W. Hilary, 2013), etc. According to Zuo
et al. (Zuo et al., 2021), Lee and Tanasawa models are suitable for
cryogenic phase change processes, and there are limited differences 2.3. Model validation
between these two models actually. Therefore, Lee model is selected as
the phase change model to calculate the mass transferred between gas According to previous studies (Zuo et al., 2021), evaporation and
and liquid. The expression is shown below: condensation relaxation factors could significantly affect the simulation
{ results of pressure evolution. The evaporation relaxation factor is
ṁe = βe αl ρl (T − Tsat )/T
/ sat , T > Tsat (2.9) generally set in the range of 1 × 10− 4 s-1 - 1 × 10− 5 s-1 (Lv et al., 2021).
ṁc = βc αg ρg (Tsat − T) Tsat , T ≤ Tsat Here, the evaporation relaxation factor βe is fixed to 1 × 10− 5 s-1 and the
condensation relaxation factor βc is adjusted to fit the result of the
where βe and βc are the relaxation factors, 1/s, calculated by Eq. (2.10); experiment. The optimal value of relaxation factor is determined by the
subscripts e and c represent the evaporation and condensation processes, maximum and average relative errors deviated to the experiment, as
respectively. shown in Eqs. (2.13) and (2.14).
⎧ √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅ /
⎪
⎪ 6 2γc M hlg ρl perror,max = Max(SV − EV) EV (2.13)
⎪ β =
⎪ c D 2− γ
⎨ sm c 2πRTsat ρl − ρg
√̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅ (2.10) ∫ time /
⎪
⎪ 6 2γe M hlg ρg
⎪ |SV − EV| EVdt
⎪
⎩ βe =
Dsm 2 − γ e 2πRTsat ρl − ρg 0
(2.14)
perror.average =
time
where γ e and γe are the evaporation and condensation coefficients
where SV and EV are a simulation and an experiment value.
respectively, Dsm is Sauter mean diameter.
Fig. 5 shows the ullage pressure of the tank with βc varying from 1 ×
The thermodynamic processes occurring in the tank are determined
10− 3 s-1 to 3 × 10− 3 s-1. When βc is 2 × 10− 3 s-1 and 3 × 10− 3 s-1, the
by the temperature difference between the local and saturated temper­
predicted values agree well with experimental values within the time
atures. In order to accurately clarify the direction of the mass transfer in
the storage tank, the accuracy of physical properties is vital in numerical
simulations. All physical property data of liquid hydrogen and gaseous
hydrogen are obtained from NIST’s Refprop database. The phase change
model is rewritten in the user defined function (UDF) in the commercial
software ANSYS Fluent, and the relationship between pressure and
saturation temperature is added to the phase change model, as given in
Eq. (2.11):

Tsat = 2.983p0.2924 + 8.757, p ∈ [0.01 MPa, 1.2 MPa] (2.11)

Fig. 3. The computational mesh of the liquid hydrogen tank model.

51
C. Wan et al.
Fig. 4. Results of the mesh independence test.
Fig. 5. Comparison of different condensation coefficients between simulations
and experiment (Hastings et al., 2003).
scale of 20000 s. The maximum and average deviations are only 1.19%
and 0.47% respectively for βc = 3 × 10− 3 s-1, which is thus selected as
the condensation relaxation factor in the following simulations. In the
subsequent simulations of depressurization, the adiabatic boundary of
the refrigerator wall is modified to the non-adiabatic boundary, and the
simulation results of self-pressurized process will be set as initial con­
dition for the next stage - the depressurization process under active
cooling.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Self-pressurized process
The experimental report of MHTB (Hastings et al., 2003) mentioned
that the self-pressurization test began at 10380 s, and lasted continu­
ously until the ullage pressure reached 137 kPa. There was no exhaust in
the whole process, and the fluid mixing process was unoperated. Infor­
mation about the initial pressure, liquid phase temperature, heat
leakage, and filling height was uncovered. The temperature distribution
in the vertical direction, regarded as an important parameter, was also
absent. Following previous studies(Barsi and Kassemi, 2013; Kassemi
et al., 2016; Lv et al., 2021), the initial conditions adopted in this work
are given in Table 2.
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International Journal of Refrigeration 150 (2023) 47–58
Table 2
The initial condition in the self-pressurized process.
Initial liquid fill, Initial pressure, Liquid temperature, Gas temperature,
% kPa K K
90 111.60 20.58 21.00
For the transient process, the correct initial condition preserves the
accuracy of the simulation. In this study, simulation results of the self-
pressurized process are set as initial condition in depressurization pro­
cess. It is thus critical to first study the self-pressurized process and it
facilitates the understanding of the depressurization process. The tem­
perature contour of the storage tank and temperature distribution along
the axis of the storage tank after 20000 s are shown in Fig. 6. The ullage
pressure is 137 kPa. Subsequently, the cooling capacity would be
introduced.
As shown in Fig. 6, in the liquid zone, the core area is maintained
almost at a uniform temperature within the time scale of 20000 s. The
lowest temperature is 20.71 K at the bottom of the tank, and the highest
temperature in the liquid region is 20.76 K near the gas-liquid interface.
The temperature difference is only 0.05 K within the liquid zone. Since
the total volume of the tank is as large as 18 m3, the effect of 54-W heat
leakage into the storage tank on the thermal stratification within the
liquid zone is thus relatively minor, which is consistent with the
conclusion drawn by Kang et al. (Kang et al., 2018) in liquid nitrogen
experiments. Instead, the thermal conductivity of gas hydrogen is much
lower than that of liquid hydrogen. Thermal stratification forms acutely
in the ullage zone, with the maximum temperature of 46.3 K in the ul­
lage zone.
3.2. Pressurization and depressurization processes with active cooling
In a MRI equipment, a liquid helium storage vessel is coupled with a
helium refrigerator,which realizes lossless liquid helium storage by
recondensing the evaporated helium. A similar approach is proposed
here to recondense the evaporated hydrogen gas, realizing lossless
storage of liquid hydrogen. The schematic of the proposed liquid
hydrogen tank coupled with a refrigerator is shown in Fig. 2.
3.2.1. Pressure evolution
The heat leakage of the storage tank in the MHTB experiment is
estimated as 54 W. The refrigerator is embedded as the cooling source.
Three different cases with different cooling capacities are simulated, i.e.,
40 W, 60 W and 100 W. The thermal boundary of the cold head of the
refrigerator is set as variable heat flux conditions. Because of the limited
variation of temperature, a linear relationship is regarded as an accurate
method to couple the cooling capacity and the temperature of the cold
head. Eq.(2.15) describes this relationship. It is noted that all cases
under different cooling capacities have the same slope of 3.9 W/K
referring to the performance of a single-stage Stirling-type refrigerator
at the identical temperature, 20 K. The performance of this refrigerator
is referred to KDE400SX manufactured by CSIC Pride (Nanjing) Cryo­
genic Technology Co., Ltd.
Qc = Qc0 + 3.9⋅(T − T20K ) (2.15)
Fig. 7 shows the evolution of the pressure in the ullage zone when the
input cooling capacity is 40 W, 60 W, and 100 W, respectively. The
initial ullage pressure of depressurization process is the same to the final
ullage pressure (137 kPa) of the self-pressurized process. As shown in
Fig. 7, the depressurized process is divided into three stages: the rapid
depressurization (stage I), transition (stage II) and stable depressuriza­
tion (stage III) stages. The turning point representing the entrance from
the stage I to II varies under different cooling capacities and appears at
an earlier timing under a higher cooling capacity. According to the re­
sults, three transition turning points of the cases with 100-W, 60-W, and
40-W cooling capacities are located in the ranges of 130–170 s, 166–240
C. Wan et al. International Journal of Refrigeration 150 (2023) 47–58

Fig. 6. (a) Temperature contour of the liquid hydrogen tank and (b) temperature profile at the central line of the tank at 20000s.

Fig. 7. Pressure evolution in the storage tank with different cooling capacities.

s, and 210–300 s, respectively.

In Fig. 7, it can be observed that the slope of the stage II is similar to
that of the stage III. The demarcation time dividing the stages II and III
could not be accurately distinguished. As a result, the end timing of the
stage II should be identified by finding one or more symbolic physical
parameters firstly. Fig. 8 shows the average vorticities in the ullage zone
and the mass transfer rate in the storage tank under 40 W and 100 W.
After the refrigerator turned on, a strong disturbance to the thermal
stratification leads to a high average vorticity, which reflects the
vigorous intensity of the heat exchange in the ullage zone. The ullage
pressure shows a rapid reduction as a result of the provided cooling
capacity. Once the pressure is lower than the saturated pressure at the
Fig. 8. Average vorticities in ullage zone and mass transfer rates in storage tank
interface, evaporation occurs spontaneously. Then, the evaporated gas
with cooling capacities of (a) 100 W and (b) 40 W.
leads to a recovery of the ullage pressure that ultimately approaches the
saturated pressure. At the same time, the vorticity in the ullage zone also
the stages I and II under 100-W cooling capacity is shorter than that
reaches the lowest position shown in Fig. 8. Combined with the mass
under 40 W. For the case with 100-W cooling capacity, the stages I and II
transfer curves, the evaporation process dominates the stage II rather
last for 90 s and 380 s while they are 150 s and 800 s for the 40-W case.
than the stages I and III (positive values indicate evaporation). The
The characteristics of the heat and mass transfer occurring in the
massive amount of evaporated vapor compensates for the vacant ullage
stages I and III can be illustrated via temperature distributions and flow
zone, which recovers the partial pressure drop and results in the low
fields. Taking 100-W cooling capacity case as an example, Fig. 9 and
decline slope of the ullage pressure in Fig. 7. When it turns to the stage
Fig. 10 are the temperature distributions and flow fields of the depres­
III, the mass transfer in the whole tank reaches a dynamic equilibrium
surization process along the central axis (height direction) at different
state under the effect of evaporation and recondensation, and thus its
time. The temperature stratification in the ullage zone is extremely
rate fluctuates around zero with time. Within the stage III, the distur­
strong at the rapid depressurization stage (i.e., before 190 s). At t = 10 s,
bance intensity in the ullage zone rises again, as depicted by the trends
the maximum temperature difference in the ullage zone reaches 27 K,
of the average vorticity in Fig. 7. It is also observed that the duration of

53
C. Wan et al.
Fig. 9. The variation of temperature distributions along the central axis with
time under 100 W cooling capacity.
Fig. 10. The variation of the flow fields with time under 100 W cooling ca­
pacity: (a) the rapid depressurization stage; (b)-(c) the transition stage; (d) the
stable depressurization stage. (Blue line: liquid-vapor interface). (For inter­
pretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred
to the web version of this article.)
and the temperature distribution shows an approximately linear rela­
tionship with the height from the liquid-gas interface. After opening the
refrigerator, the temperature of the refrigerator’s cold head decreases
rapidly. The cooling capacity supplied by the refrigerator quickly dis­
turbs the initial stable thermal stratification. Thus, the temperature in
the ullage zone no longer maintains a linear relationship, but slowly
evolves into an "s" shape, as shown in Fig. 9. It indicates that the tem­
perature in the core area of the ullage zone tends to be uniform and the
changes in the temperature curve become synchronous. In particular,
the time when the "s" shape curve is formed in Fig. 9 corresponds to the
turning point of the stage II in Fig. 8, which is around 190 s. Therefore,
the "s" shape curve can be regarded as a symbol of transition from the
stage I to the stage II. After 190 s, the change of curves is small. The
temperature curves at t = 370 s and t = 430 s almost coincide, which
represents that the transition stage of the depressurization process has
been completed and it enters the stage III (stable depressurization stage).
54
International Journal of Refrigeration 150 (2023) 47–58
Fig. 10 shows the three-stage depressurization process from the
perspective of the evolution of vortices inside the ullage zone. From
Fig. 10(a) to 10(d), many irregular fragmental vortices are merged and
ultimately turn into one big circulation. In the stage I (rapid depres­
surization), a large number of broken small vortices emerge in the ullage
zone owing to the disturbance caused by the cooling capacity, as shown
in Fig. 10(a) at t = 70 s. Numerous broken vortices cause an intense
mixing process in the ullage zone, which rapidly transfer the cooling
capacity to the whole ullage zone, leading to a decrease of temperature
and pressure in the ullage zone so that the rapid depressurization occurs.
As time goes on, small vortices almost disappear, and some larger
vortices form at t = 130 s, as shown in Fig. 10(b). In Fig. 10(c), two clear
circulations emerge in the ullage at t = 220 s and fragmental vortices
can’t be found at this moment. Around t = 470 s, as shown in Fig. 10(d),
the main ullage zone is almost occupied by a large flow circulation,
which implies that the depressurization process has entered the stage III,
and the flow field is going to be stabilized.
In the ullage zone at the stage III, the refrigerator’s cold head acts as
the cold source, while the tank wall and the gas-liquid interface act as
the heat sources. Due to the buoyancy effect, the warmer gaseous
hydrogen flows horizontally from the center of the gas-liquid interface
to the wall and then rises vertically along the wall. Finally, the warm
fluid is chilled around the refrigerator and then drops from the cold head
under the action of gravity. In the path from the cold head to the
interface, due to the velocity and temperature difference between the
dropped fluid and the surrounding fluid, a strong mixing leading to an
efficient heat transfer process takes place in the ullage zone. From a
macro-level perspective, there are a cold source (the cold head of the
refrigerator) and two heat sources (the liquid-gas interface and the
warm wall) formed in the ullage zone (as a blue and two red arrows
shown in Fig. 11(a)), which are thermally linked via the circulation of
the fluid driven by the evaporation and condensation under the actions
of buoyance and gravity. The heat transfer mode is similar to that in a
gravity heat pipe, as shown in Fig. 11(b). This implies that the cooling
capacity of the cold head can be transferred to the gas-liquid interface
efficiently.
3.2.2. Effects of cooling capacity
Considering the whole tank as a control volume, from a perspective
of energy conservation, when the cooling capacity is lower than the heat
leakage, the cooling capacity can’t fully cover the heat leakage. Un­
doubtedly, the ullage pressure will show an increasing trend in the long-
term timescale. However, as demonstrated by the depressurization
process under 40-W cooling capacity in Fig. 7, the ullage pressure shows
apparent reduction within 1000 s and approaches its initial value (119
kPa vs 111.6 kPa). This result means that the cooling capacity required
for active control of the pressure in a liquid hydrogen tank does not need
to exceed the heat leakage of the storage tank. It is beneficial for
reducing the operating cost for the refrigerators because smaller cooling
capacities are usually associated with lower costs. Thus, the pressure
management strategy of adopting a cooling capacity lower than the heat
leakage is preferable in active lossless storage. However, the above
strategy is based on the 40-W result of Fig. 7, which can’t intuitively be
understood from the perspective of the lumped energy conservation as
mentioned before. To better explain the result shown in Fig. 7, liquid
temperature evolutions inside the storage tank are extracted and
analyzed.
Fig. 12(a) shows several temperature monitoring points marked by
numbers. A central monitoring point used to the illustrate the liquid
zone temperature evolution is located 2.5 m from the top of the storage
tank, which is depicted by solid lines in Fig. 12(b). In both self-
pressurized and depressurized processes, this position is always in the
liquid phase. The temperature evolutions of the other two positions,
which are selected randomly, are extracted and drawn by dash lines. It is
observed that all the three positions show similar evolution trends, as
shown in Fig. 12(b).
C. Wan et al.
Fig. 11. Schematics of the heat transfer mode for: (a) the liquid hydrogen tank with active cooling in the ullage zone, (b) a heat pipe.
Fig. 12. (a) Positions of temperature monitors, (b) temperature evolutions at different positions (marked by 0, 1, 2) under various cooling capacities.
The blue and red solid lines in Fig. 12(b) represent the temperature
evolutions of the focus monitoring point in the stage II, with the cooling
capacity of 100 W and 40 W, respectively. Both curves ultimately pre­
sent a stable rising trend after 1400 s. There is almost no difference in
the slope under the cooling capacity of 100 W and 40 W (2.18×10–6 vs.
2.40×10–6 K/s). Therefore, the cooling capacity can barely influence the
tendency of the transformation from a subcooling liquid to a saturated
one.
Fig. 13(a) and 13(b) show the temperature distribution near the gas-
liquid interface and of the liquid zone along the height direction. As time
goes on, the bottom fluid continuously heated by the surrounding moves
up along the wall and toward the interface due to buoyancy. In contrast,
evaporation causes a decreased temperature near the interface. As a
result, an arch-shaped temperature distribution is formed with a rela­
tively low interface temperature, and an increase of liquid temperature
beneath the interface along the gravity direction. When moving to the
bottom, the temperature then drops, all the arch-shaped curves are
drawn in Fig. 13. Afterwards, the liquid temperature at the bottom of the
storage tank rises synchronously owing to the heat transferred from two
parts, i.e., the fluid with the highest temperature underneath the inter­
face (the horizontal peak values in Fig. 13(b)) and the bottom wall of
storage tank. It is found that the position of the highest temperature area
gradually moves downwards, as shown by the black solid arrow in
Fig. 13(b).
The conduction lines calculated by the Fourier law and streamlines
55
International Journal of Refrigeration 150 (2023) 47–58
under 40-W and 100-W cooling capacity are given in Fig. 14(a) and 14
(b). The conduction lines are always directed from the high-temperature
to the low-temperature zone, thus it is clearly observed that a high-
temperature zone exists at the upper region of the liquid phase, as
demonstrated by the horizontal black lines in Fig. 14.
The schematic of the whole flow field composed with the ullage and
the liquid zone vividly describes the formation mechanism of the high-
temperature zone, as shown in Fig. 15. In the ullage zone, the cooling
capacity continuously reduces the local temperature, resulting in the
counterclockwise flow and a decline of the ullage pressure successively.
In the liquid zone, the heat leakage from the surrounding brings out
buoyancy, consequently, the heated fluid at the bottom quickly climbs
up along the tank’s wall. At the same moment, the evaporating interface
acts as a boundary of the flow with a low temperature, preventing the
upward flow and changing their direction back and then downward, as
the circulations beneath the interface shown in Fig. 15. Thus, these two
counterflows converge at a zone that appearing a high temperature,
which is called the high-temperature zone. From the perspective of the
result, the high-temperature zone acts as a redistributor to reallocate the
heat leakage into the liquid zone. It is worth mentioning that, without
external forced driving, the flows occurring in liquid still belong to
natural convection.
Because of the presence of hydrostatic pressure, the bottom fluid
temperature is lower than the saturation temperature of its local pres­
sure, i.e., the fluid is at a subcooled state. With the transfer of heat based
C. Wan et al. International Journal of Refrigeration 150 (2023) 47–58

on the mode depicted in Fig. 15, the liquid temperature tends to increase
and be uniform. Thus, conversion to saturation occurs in the subcooling
liquid. Briefly speaking, the heat leakage is deposited temporarily in the
subcooling liquid. When the liquid hydrogen reaches an almost uniform
temperature, the heat capacity of subcooling liquid may run out and the
entire heat leakage will be restrictedly transferred to the interface for
evaporation. As a result, the lower cooling capacity makes it impossible
to cover the excess heat leakage. This means that there is no subcooling
liquid to afford the excess heat leakage and the ullage pressure starts to
rise again. Instead, if the cooling capacity (100 W) exceeds the heat
leakage (54 W), the latent heat from heat leakage could be easily
balanced by the refrigerator in the ullage zone, and ullage pressure
would not rise again.

3.2.3. Feasible solutions in practical applications

In the development of liquid hydrogen storage technology, the
flammability of hydrogen presents a challenge. It is possible to limit the
risk of that in an acceptable range by using pressure management. Based
on main results in Sections 3.1 and 3.2.1, the rapid depressurization in
the ullage zone indicates that the strategy of intermittently opening a

Fig. 13. Temperature distribution along with height under the cooling capacity
of (a) 40 W, (b) 100 W (the ‘s’ shape area is locally enlarged).

Fig. 15. Schematic for the explanation of the high-temperature zone via the
flow field in the third stage.

Fig. 14. Conduction lines and streamlines under the cooling capacity of (a) 40 W and (b) 100 W (gray line: streamline, black line: conduction line, t = 1200s). The
white circle contains the fixed vortex with high temperature.

56
C. Wan et al.
refrigerator is valid in the case of a short-term storage requirement.
Putting the cold head in the ullage zone is a more direct approach to
manage pressure than immersing it in the liquid zone, as it can more
effectively disrupt the thermal stratification formed in the ullage zone.
As a result, a lossless liquid hydrogen storage system with an inverter
compressor will be able to meet various scenarios by adjusting the
cooling capacity based on the rated ullage pressure. It is recommended
to have a low cooling capacity for short-term storage and a higher
cooling capacity for long-term storage.
4. Conclusions
An active lossless liquid hydrogen storage system based on the
experiment of MHTB has been proposed. A transient numerical model is
built, and the phase change model is improved by constructing a rela­
tionship between temperature and pressure. According to an experiment
finished by NASA, the average model prediction deviation of the ullage
pressure is 0.47%. Successively, the self-pressurized and depressuriza­
tion processes are presented and analyzed. The main results are shown
below:
(1) Acute thermal stratification appears in the ullage during the self-
pressurized process. The maximum temperature difference rea­
ches 25 K and the temperature distribution shows a straightly
linear relationship along the height direction. On the contrary, in
the liquid zone, the temperature difference can be neglected in
the 20000 s timescale. The maximum temperature difference is
only 0.03 K.
(2) The depressurization process can be divided into three stages: 1.
the rapid depressurization; 2. transition stage; 3. stable depres­
surization stage. The ullage pressure decreases quickly in the
stage I but slowly in the stage III. The stage I and III are easily
distinguished by the slope of pressure evolution but the stage II
needs to be identified individually by the minimum vorticity and
the maximum mass transfer rate.
(3) Work modes in the ullage and the liquid zone are studied and
concluded respectively. At the stage III, a heat-pipe-like work
mode is observed in the ullage zone. In the liquid zone, the high-
temperature zone forms, and then the reason of the formation is
explained, at which beneath the interface seems like as a redis­
tributor to transfer excess heat leakage to the subcooled liquid
hydrogen at the bottom of the tank.
(4) In the depressurization process, the similar evolution trends of
the ullage pressure can be observed under different cooling ca­
pacities. It is found that the 40-W cooling capacity, which is lower
than the heat leakage (54 W), can effectively accomplish the
pressure management purpose with a refrigerator located in the
ullage zone.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
This work was financially supported by the National Key Research
and Development Program of China (No. 2021YFB4000700) and the
National Postdoctoral Program for Innovative Talents (BX2021253).
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