Method of Construction for High Cycle Fatigue Resistant Pressure Vessels in Hydrogen Service

Currently, pressure vessels that operate in hydrogen service and subjected to fatigue must be designed using a defect tolerant design procedure. This means that first the fracture mechanics properties of the material being considered must be measured in hydrogen at the maximum service pressure. The properties are fatigue crack propagation properties and threshold stress intensity factor for hydrogen embrittlement (KIHE). With these properties, a fatigue crack propagation life can be estimated assuming an initial crack size and geometry and growing this defect to failure. The property measurements are costly and can only be performed at a few laboratories. Furthermore, the resulting lives are usually very short because of the assumed initial crack size. These things limit the application of this design method to lower cycle or static loading applications. This work introduces a cost-effective method of design and construction of pressure vessels for high cycle use in hydrogen service at pressures below 40,000 psi that eliminates the need for determining fracture mechanics properties in hydrogen environment. The method uses shrink fit construction of a liner inside a jacket. The method requires that when the pressure is applied, the magnitude of the resultant stress at the pressure boundary of the liner is more compressive than the magnitude of the applied pressure and the maximum allowed size of defect in the jacket at the interface between the jacket and the liner is such that when the cyclic stress is applied the resultant fatigue loading of that defect at that location to be less than the threshold value for growth of that defect.