Hydrogen, a promising source of clean energy, due to its low volumetric density requires high-pressure storage. It is a challenge in terms of safety and costs. To add more, the molecules of hydrogen may have impact on the interior of steel containers where they are stored. That leads to increase in hardness and fragility of their surface.
Researchers from the West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin will develop a method of detecting first signs of destruction in stainless containers for hydrogen storage. The observation of magnetizing with an alternating magnetic field (AMF) will be the scientists’ basic technic.
Different types of stainless steel applied to production of hydrogen tanks have poor magnetic properties. However, due to the influence of high pressures, mechanical stresses may appear in steel, and that may cause material transformation resulting in a change of its magnetic properties. These properties can be observed while magnetizing material (with an alternating magnetic field, using an electromagnet) and measuring with a magnetic field meter a change in magnetization level of a given material. ZUT researchers are intended to develop a precise, non-destructive method comprising local measurement as well as the subsequent analysis and interpretation of measurement data.
The project of ZUT scientists managed by prof. Grzegorz Psuj, together with Michal Maciusowicz, PhD and Pawel Kochmanski, PhD from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics, in cooperation with the team of National Institute for Applied Sciences in Lyon INSA Lyon (Fr. Institut Nationale des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon), managed by prof. Benjamina Ducharne, started in December 2024 and will last two years.
The main project goal is to build an international and interdisciplinary team of experts and to tighten their cooperation. The budget (almost 30.000 PLN) is not huge, as it is a National Agency of Academic Exchange project. The project aims at supporting international mobility of researchers from Poland and France executing projects agreed and carried on together. NAWA will finance research internship of ZUT employees in INSA in France and the planned research will be finalized with the project partners’ own contribution.
For more information, please check:
nawa.gov.pl/wspolpraca-i-wymiana-miedzynarodowa/wspolne-projekty-badawcze/nabory-2024/wspolne-projekty-badawcze-pomiedzy-polska-a-francja
Photos: Natalia Lisowska/ZUT
