Abstract
A new structural reinforcement by net is devised for compressed natural gas vehicle fuel containers. The conventional composite containers are fabricated with continuous filament winding. The production efficiency is aimed at by the proposed net reinforcement with high structural reliability ensured by means of structural optimization technique. The net is modeled as truss structure contacting with the surface of the metallic liner, which is modeled as elastic solid finite elements. The geometrical nonlinearity with the finite rotation of net members raises the shape finding problem of the net, where the position of connection node is analyzed on the basis of principle of minimum strain energy with the iterative solution searches. The cylinder part of the container is easily handled under the assumption of infinitely long cylinder, so that the net reinforcement of spherical dome is taken into consideration. The optimum length of net member is determined so as to realize uniform strain in net members. A formulation of the sensitivity analysis is derived to constitute the governing equations to determine the optimum length, and the equations are summarized in linear simultaneous equations. An optimum configuration of the net is investigated through the numerical examples.
