Fire Safety evaluation of High Pressure Hydrogen System for FCEV

Fuel cell vehicles are equipped with Pressure Relief Devices(PRDs) installed in pressure tank cylinder to prevent the explosion of the tank during a fire. PRDs are safety devices that perceive a fire and release gas in the pressure tank cylinder before it is exploded. But if the PRD does not actuate, because either the PRD fails or can't be surrounded by the flame of a fire, the tank will rupture and produce a blast wave and hydrogen fire ball. In this paper, we observed the fire behavior of actual fuel cell vehicle, comparing with that of gasoline vehicle.