Flow Regime and Noise Characteristics in Solenoid Valve for Hydrogen

Abstract

With the on-going heightened issues on climate change, the Fuel Cell Vehicles (FCV) are attracting attention. A significant challenge in hydrogen automobiles is the storage method and safety, including the aerodynamic noise of high-pressure systems in pressure reducer systems. And, we have focused on a solenoid valve, which is a component of the Hydrogen Tank Solenoid (HTS) system. The solenoid valve is used for both filling the tank inside the FCV with hydrogen and supplying hydrogen from the tank to the fuel cell. In this study, we performed noise analysis of a solenoid valve, during filling to the tank and supplying from tank to solve the noise problem. In detail, the CFD analysis method was used to evaluate the flow characteristics inside the valve. In the result, it was found that the solenoid valve generates a larger sound pressure while filling hydrogen compared to the sound pressure while supplying hydrogen, and the main noise sources derived from the pilot valve and the excess flow valve area. In addition, the increase in turbulence intensity in the pilot valve area was supposed to be the largest cause of noise.