JP2003211982A - Hydrogen piping structure for fuel cell vehicles - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Problem] Even if the vehicle body is deformed due to collision of the vehicle, etc.,
Prevents deformation of high-pressure hydrogen piping. SOLUTION: A hydrogen tank 1 for pressurizing and storing hydrogen is fixed to a support frame 5 fixed on a side member 9, and the hydrogen tank 1 and a fuel cell 32 to which hydrogen is supplied are composed of high-pressure hydrogen. It is connected by a pipe 33 and a low-pressure hydrogen pipe 39. The high-pressure hydrogen pipe 33 is provided with an electromagnetic valve 35 closed by impact and a pressure regulating valve 37 for reducing high-pressure hydrogen to low-pressure hydrogen, and these are fixed on the pipe fixing part 21 of the support frame 5. Pressure regulating valve 37
Low-pressure hydrogen pipe 39 connecting the fuel cell 32 and the fuel cell 32 has an upper and lower pipe section 39a extending in the up-down direction of the vehicle body,
A fragile portion 43 is provided in the upper and lower piping portions 39a.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a hydrogen piping structure for a fuel cell vehicle having a hydrogen piping for connecting a fuel cell with a tank for storing high-pressure hydrogen.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, it is known that a tank for storing fuel gas is fixed to a support frame fixed to a vehicle body (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-290647). In this piping structure, the unit such as the joint part of the fuel piping is
It is not directly fixed to the support frame, but is fixed to the support frame via a joint plate.

[0003]

In the above-mentioned conventional piping structure, since the unit such as the joint portion of the piping is not directly fixed to the strong support frame, the vehicle body is deformed at the time of a vehicle collision, especially at a rear surface collision. At times, the high-pressure fuel pipe may be deformed. This deformation may occur in all regions including the high-pressure pipe section from the fuel tank to the pressure regulating valve that reduces the gas pressure from high pressure to low pressure.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to prevent deformation of the high-pressure fuel pipe even if the vehicle body is deformed due to a collision of the vehicle.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the invention of claim 1 provides a tank for pressurizing and storing hydrogen, a high-pressure hydrogen pipe connected to this tank, and a high-pressure hydrogen pipe provided in the middle thereof. The opening / closing means for closing the flow path and the pressure adjusting means for adjusting the high pressure hydrogen flowing through the high pressure hydrogen pipe to a low pressure are respectively fixed to the support frame fixed to the vehicle body, and the pressure adjusting means and this pressure adjusting means are fixed. The low-pressure hydrogen pipe connected to the fuel cell to which the low-pressure hydrogen whose pressure has been adjusted by is supplied is provided with a fragile portion.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the configuration of the first aspect of the invention, the fragile portion is set in an upper and lower piping portion extending in the vertical direction of the vehicle body.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the structure of the first or second aspect of the invention, the space in which the fragile portion is disposed is separated from the passenger compartment of the automobile by a partition wall.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the structure according to any one of the first to third aspects, the fragile portion is configured such that a diameter of the low pressure hydrogen pipe is partially reduced.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the structure according to any one of the first to third aspects, the fragile portion is configured such that the low-pressure hydrogen pipe is partially thinned.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the structure of the fifth aspect, the inner diameter of the thinned weakened portion is the same as the inner diameter of the other portion of the low pressure hydrogen pipe.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the structure according to any one of the first to third aspects, the fragile portion is configured such that the low-pressure hydrogen pipe is curved in an S shape.

[0012]

According to the invention of claim 1, the high pressure piping system from the high pressure tank for storing hydrogen to the pressure adjusting means for adjusting the pressure of the high pressure hydrogen to a low pressure is fixed to the support frame fixed to the vehicle body, and Since the fragile portion is provided in the low-pressure hydrogen pipe downstream of the pressure adjusting means, even if the vehicle body is deformed at the time of a vehicle collision, the fragile portion of the low-pressure hydrogen pipe receives the stress generated at this time and absorbs the deformation. It is possible to prevent deformation of the high-pressure hydrogen pipe.

Further, since the fragile portion where the pipe is easily deformed is located downstream of the opening / closing means for closing the flow passage, the hydrogen supply to the fragile portion side is stopped by closing the opening / closing means at the time of a vehicle collision, Even if the fragile portion is damaged, the fuel leakage in the tank can be prevented.

Further, since the fragile portion where the pipe is easily deformed is located downstream of the pressure adjusting means, even if the fragile portion is damaged, only low pressure hydrogen leaks, and the leak amount can be reduced. it can.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the fragile portion is set in the upper and lower piping portions extending in the vertical direction of the vehicle body. When moved to the left and right, the fragile portion receives a force in the bending direction that intersects the axial direction of the pipe, and the fragile portion is easily deformed.

According to the third aspect of the invention, even if the fragile portion is damaged, the partition wall can prevent the infiltration of hydrogen into the vehicle interior.

According to the invention of claim 4, since the diameter of the low-pressure hydrogen pipe in the fragile portion is partially reduced, the function as the fragile portion can be reliably exhibited.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the fragile portion has the thin wall of the low-pressure hydrogen pipe partially thinned, so that the function as the fragile portion is surely exhibited.

According to the invention of claim 6, since the inner diameter of the low-pressure hydrogen pipe including the fragile portion is constant, it is possible to prevent the flow passage resistance from being lowered by providing the fragile portion.

According to the invention of claim 7, since the low-pressure hydrogen pipe is curved in an S shape in the fragile portion, when the vehicle body is deformed, the curved portion is elastically deformed to some extent to absorb the stress generated during the deformation. be able to.

[0021]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a side sectional view showing an internal structure of a vehicle rear part to which a hydrogen piping structure of a fuel cell vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied. A hydrogen tank 1 for pressurizing and storing hydrogen is shown in FIG. , Is arranged behind the rear seat 3.
FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a portion where the hydrogen tank 1 is mounted on the vehicle body.

The strong support frame 5 for supporting the hydrogen tank 1 includes a pair of side members 9 which are skeleton members of the vehicle body 7.
It is fixed to the top by four bolts 11.

The support frame 5 has an arcuate recess 13 formed in the central portion in the vehicle width direction, which matches the circular outer shape of the hydrogen tank 1. The hydrogen tank 1 is covered with the two fixing bands 15 in a state of being housed in the arc-shaped recess 13, and both ends of each fixing band 15 have the support frame 5
The bolts 19 are fixed to the upper surfaces 17 of the vehicle body in the front-rear direction.

At one end of the support frame 5 in the vehicle width direction (downward in FIG. 2), as shown in FIG.
A pipe fixing portion 21 that is located below 3 and extends in the front-rear direction of the vehicle body is formed. At the other end (upper side in FIG. 2) of the support frame 5 in the vehicle width direction, a step portion 23 is formed at the same height position as the pipe fixing portion 21. As shown in FIG. 1, a protrusion fixing portion 25 is formed in the lower portion of the support frame 5 corresponding to the upper surface 17 over the entire vehicle width direction, and both ends of the protrusion fixing portion 25 in the vehicle width direction are the side members. It is placed on the plate 9 and the above-mentioned bolt 11 is fastened to this portion.

A hydrogen inlet / outlet portion 27 is provided at the center of the end of the hydrogen tank 1 on the side of the pipe fixing portion 21. The hydrogen inlet / outlet portion 27 is filled with hydrogen extending downward in FIG. One end of the pipe 29 is connected, and a filling port 31 for filling the hydrogen tank 1 with hydrogen is provided at the other end of the hydrogen filling pipe 29. A part of the lower side of the hydrogen filling pipe 29 is fixed to a body member such as the side member 9.

The hydrogen inlet / outlet portion 27 of the hydrogen tank 1 is connected to one end of a high-pressure hydrogen pipe 33 for supplying hydrogen to the fuel cell 32 arranged in the lower portion of the rear seat 3. The other end of the high-pressure hydrogen pipe 33 extends rearward of the vehicle body, then extends outward in the vehicle width direction as shown in FIG. 2, and further extends downward to reach the pipe fixing portion 21. The high-pressure hydrogen pipe 33 on the pipe fixing portion 21 is extended to the front of the vehicle body, an electromagnetic valve 35 as an opening / closing means is interposed in the middle thereof, and a pressure regulating valve 37 as a pressure regulating means is provided at a front end portion. Is provided.

The electromagnetic valve 35 is closed when the G sensor (not shown) mounted on the vehicle detects a shock such as a collision of the vehicle, and closes the flow path of the high-pressure hydrogen pipe 33.
On the other hand, the pressure regulating valve 37 controls the high-pressure hydrogen in the high-pressure hydrogen pipe 33,
The pressure is reduced to a low pressure and the low-pressure hydrogen pipe 39 connected to the downstream side is sent out.

High-pressure hydrogen pipe 3 on the pipe fixing portion 21
3 is the upstream and downstream positions of the solenoid valve 35 and the pressure regulating valve 37.
It is fixed to the pipe fixing portion 21 by the fixing bracket 41 at the upstream side position.

The low pressure hydrogen pipe 39 described above is connected to the pressure regulating valve 37.
From the front to the front of the vehicle body, and then bends downward in front of the pipe fixing portion 21 to form the upper and lower pipe portions 39a. Further, although not shown in FIG. Is extended and connected to the fuel cell 32 at its end.

Low-pressure hydrogen pipe 3 on the pipe fixing portion 21
9 is fixed to the pipe fixing portion 21 by a fixing bracket 42. A fragile portion 43 is formed in an upper and lower pipe portion 39a extending in the vertical direction of the low pressure hydrogen pipe 39. The upper portion of the fragile portion 43 in the upper and lower piping portions 39a of the low-pressure hydrogen pipe 39 is fixed to the side surface of the piping fixing portion 21 on the front side of the vehicle body by the fixing bracket 45.
The lower end of the side member 9 is fixed by the fixing bracket 47.
It is fixed to body parts such as.

The hydrogen tank module M extending from the hydrogen tank 1 to the high-pressure hydrogen pipe 33 and the low-pressure hydrogen pipe 39 as described above is arranged in a space 53 separated from the vehicle compartment 51 by a partition wall 49. The partition wall 49 separates a front surface portion 49a arranged at the rear of the rear seat 3, an upper surface portion 49b that covers the upper portion of the hydrogen tank 1, a space 53, and a luggage compartment 51a at the rear of the vehicle body that is a part of the vehicle compartment 51. And a rear surface portion 49c.

Further, the lower end of the duct 55 is connected to the upper portion of the partition wall 49 on the rear end side of the vehicle body so as to communicate with the space 53, and the upper end of the duct 53 is opened to the outside through the roof of the vehicle body 7. . The partition wall 49 is not provided with a hole or the like penetrating between the vehicle compartment 51 and the space 53 in order to seal them.

FIG. 3A shows the low pressure hydrogen pipe 39 described above.
The specific example of the fragile part 43 in is shown. in this case,
The low-pressure hydrogen pipe 39 having a diameter D is partially reduced in diameter to a diameter d, and this small-diameter portion is used as a fragile portion 43. The diameter of the low-pressure hydrogen pipe 39 can be partially reduced by spinning or hydraulic forming.

In the hydrogen piping structure for a fuel cell vehicle as described above, even if a rear collision of the vehicle occurs and the vehicle body frame member such as the rear side member 9 of the vehicle body 7 is deformed, it is connected to the hydrogen tank 1. High-pressure hydrogen pipe 33,
The solenoid valve 35 and the pressure regulating valve 37 are provided with a strong support frame 5.
The high pressure hydrogen pipe 33 is prevented from being deformed because it is fixed to the pipe fixing portion 21.

At the time of the above-mentioned collision, G (not shown)
The sensor detects the impact, and based on this, the high-pressure hydrogen pipe 33
Since the solenoid valve 35 provided in the valve operates to close the flow path,
Outflow of high-pressure hydrogen to the downstream side of the solenoid valve 35 is avoided.

On the other hand, the vehicle body 7 is deformed during the above-mentioned collision,
When the positional relationship between the hydrogen tank module M and the fuel cell 32 changes relatively, the stress that the piping system receives due to this change is deformed and absorbed by the fragile portion 43 provided in the low-pressure hydrogen pipe 39.

The fragile portion 43 is provided on the vertical pipe portion 39a extending in the vertical direction of the vehicle body 7, the upper side thereof being the pipe fixing portion 21, and the lower side thereof being the side bracket 9 of the vehicle body component. , The hydrogen tank module M and the fuel cell 32, which are generated at the time of a vehicle collision, are fixed.
The fragile portion 43 receives a force in the bending direction intersecting the axial direction of the pipe and reliably absorbs the change in the relative positional relationship with.

Further, since the hydrogen tank module M including the fragile portion 43 is separated from the passenger compartment 51 by the partition wall 49, even if the fragile portion 43 is damaged due to deformation, the hydrogen in the space 53 is Car body 7 through duct 55
Is discharged to the outside.

3 (b) and 3 (c) show another example of the fragile portion 43. As shown in FIG. In the same figure (b), the low-pressure hydrogen pipe 39 having the wall thickness T is partially thinned to have the wall thickness t, and this thin wall portion is used as the fragile portion 43. Low-pressure hydrogen pipe 39 in this case
Has the inner diameter of the weakened portion 43 the same as the inner diameters of the other portions, so that the reduction of the flow path resistance due to the provision of the weakened portion 43 is avoided. Such partial thinning of the low-pressure hydrogen pipe 39 can be performed by machining such as a lathe or spinning.

In FIG. 3 (c), the low-pressure hydrogen pipe 39 is curved in an S shape, and this curved portion is used as the fragile portion 43. In this case, the S-shaped curved portion elastically deforms to some extent to absorb a change in the relative positional relationship between the hydrogen tank module M and the fuel cell 32 at the time of a vehicle collision. Note that FIG.
In the case of (c), it is effective for the rear-end collision to set the left-right direction as the vehicle front-rear direction in the figure, but the positional relationship is not limited to this.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side sectional view showing an internal structure of a vehicle rear part to which a hydrogen piping structure of a fuel cell vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a portion where a hydrogen tank in the piping structure of FIG. 1 is mounted on a vehicle body.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing a specific example of a fragile portion in the piping structure of FIG. 1, in which (a) is a low-pressure hydrogen pipe having a reduced diameter,
(B) is a thin low-pressure hydrogen pipe, and (c) is a curved low-pressure hydrogen pipe.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 hydrogen tank 5 Support frame 7 car body 32 Fuel cell 33 High-pressure hydrogen piping 35 Solenoid valve (opening / closing means) 37 Pressure regulating valve (pressure regulating means) 39 Low pressure hydrogen piping 43 fragile part 49 partition

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A tank for pressurizing and storing hydrogen, a high-pressure hydrogen pipe connected to the tank, an opening / closing means provided in the middle of the high-pressure hydrogen pipe to close the flow passage, and high-pressure hydrogen flowing through the high-pressure hydrogen pipe. Low pressure hydrogen for fixing the pressure control means to a low pressure is respectively fixed to a support frame fixed to the vehicle body, and the pressure control means and the fuel cell to which the low pressure hydrogen regulated by the pressure control means is supplied are connected. A hydrogen piping structure for a fuel cell vehicle, characterized in that a weak portion is provided in the piping. 2. The hydrogen piping structure for a fuel cell vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the fragile portion is set in an upper and lower piping portion extending in a vertical direction of the vehicle body. 3. The hydrogen piping structure for a fuel cell vehicle according to claim 1, wherein a space in which the fragile portion is arranged is separated from a passenger compartment of the automobile by a partition wall. 4. The fragile portion is characterized in that a diameter of the low-pressure hydrogen pipe is partially reduced.
4. A hydrogen piping structure for a fuel cell vehicle according to any one of 3 to 3. 5. The fragile portion is characterized in that the wall thickness of the low-pressure hydrogen pipe is partially thinned.
4. A hydrogen piping structure for a fuel cell vehicle according to any one of 3 to 3. 6. The hydrogen piping structure for a fuel cell vehicle according to claim 5, wherein an inner diameter of the thinned weakened portion is the same as an inner diameter of another portion of the low pressure hydrogen piping. 7. The hydrogen piping structure for a fuel cell vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the weak portion is formed by bending the low-pressure hydrogen piping into an S shape.