Concave Contact Geometry for Enhanced Sealing and Structural Integrity in Ultra-High Pressure Hydrogen Solenoid Valves

Ultra-high-pressure hydrogen solenoid valves face a fundamental design challenge of operating across a wide pressure range from 2 MPa to 87.5 MPa. To address the conflicting requirements of effective sealing at low pressures and structural integrity at high pressures, this study proposes a novel con...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jaeseong Choi, Hwayoung Kim
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-05-01
Series:Applied Sciences
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/15/11/6184
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Summary:Ultra-high-pressure hydrogen solenoid valves face a fundamental design challenge of operating across a wide pressure range from 2 MPa to 87.5 MPa. To address the conflicting requirements of effective sealing at low pressures and structural integrity at high pressures, this study proposes a novel concave contact geometry based on Hertzian contact theory. Finite element analysis examines the mechanical relationships between plunger curvature radius (<i>R<sub>ₚ</sub></i>), seat curvature radius (<i>Rₛ</i>), and eccentricity (<i>e</i>). Optimization utilizing Latin hypercube sampling and kriging metamodeling yields an optimal design (<i>Rₚ</i> = 5.73 mm, <i>Rₛ</i> = 4.68 mm, <i>e</i> = 0.95 mm) with an <i>Rₚ/Rₛ</i> ratio of 1.22. The optimized concave contact geometry achieves 23.7% higher contact pressure at 2.0 MPa and 42.7% lower maximum equivalent stress at 87.5 MPa compared to conventional rectangular geometry. Experimental validation confirms the concave contact geometry seals at 1.7 ± 0.2 MPa, below the AIS-195 standard requirement of 2.0 MPa and 69.6% lower than the rectangular design (5.6 ± 0.7 MPa). Structural analysis after 87.5 MPa high-pressure exposure reveals no measurable deformation in the concave design, while the rectangular design exhibits permanent deformation of 0.0580 ± 0.007 mm. This integrated methodology provides a framework for optimizing contact geometries in fluid control components operating under extreme pressure conditions, successfully reconciling contradictory requirements across the entire pressure range.
ISSN:2076-3417