Optimization assisted redesigning a structure of a hydrogen valve: the redesign process and numerical evaluations

This study introduced the redesign process of an automotive hydrogen valve. The process relied on the structural optimization approach, which used to build up the new valves having promising stiffness and the lowest possible weights. To achieve the goals, the study was proposed to be taken place via the three main stages. These stages included topology optimization, lattice optimization, as well as numerical evaluations. The achieved results firstly indicated that the two newly designed valves possessed longer life and lower mass than the original valve. Especially, the topology optimized one could withstand more than 5E4 working cycles in the pre-treated condition before the first crack would be nucleated. The results also pointed out the influences of the pre-treatment pressure on the fatigue performance of the hydrogen valve. Within the examined ranges of the pressure, increasing the pressure’s magnitudes tended to shorten the fatigue life of the topology optimized valve. Additionally, the results highlighted the impact of the employed materials on the estimated fatigue life of such a non-treated structure. In the highlights, the considered steel valves could function normally far beyond 1.5E5 working cycles while the aluminum valves would have an initial crack formation prior to reaching 3E3 cycles. The results also suggested that further practical evidence is needed to not only confirm whether the selected printed aluminum is among the promising candidate materials of the hydrogen valve but also to support the described evaluations.