CFD model performance benchmark of fast filling simulations of hydrogen tanks with pre-cooling

•Good agreement between the CFD results and the experiment for temperature histories.•Real gas equation of state is required not to underestimate the maximum temperature.•Linear correlation between the pre-cooling and the maximum gas temperature.•The effect of gas pre-cooling on the state of charge is quantified.

High gas temperatures can be reached inside a hydrogen tank during the filling process because of the large pressure increase (up to 70–80 MPa) and because of the short time (∼3 min) of the process. High temperatures can potentially jeopardize the structural integrity of the storage system and one of the strategies to reduce the temperature increase is to pre-cool the hydrogen before injecting it into the tank. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tools have the capabilities of capturing the flow field and the temperature rise in the tank. The results of CFD simulations of fast filling with pre-cooling are shown and compared with experimental data to assess the accuracy of the CFD model.