• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.90-95
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• 2011

This study was conducted to judge requalification of cylinders by assessing composite flaws such as scratches, cuts, and gouges damaging on the composite of Type III cylinders for compressed natural gas vehicles. As a result of the flaw tolerance test, all specimens have satisfied with minimum requirement cycles according to damage levels based on ISO 19078 and cyclic performance for pressure showed beyond twenty thousands in damage level 1 and 2, and did eighteen thousands to twenty-one thousands in damage level 3. Eight of twelve specimens failed the test due to composite flaws and the rest of the cylinders failed regardless of flaws. The results of Finite Element Method followed by the computer simulation indicated that the stress of 79.5 MPa calculated on the flaw model of $1.25\;mm{\times}200\;mm$ and the stress of 66.6 MPa on the non-flaw model when the service pressure applied to inside of cylinder. The difference between the models is about 19.37%. We concluded that this difference influences fatigue life and this flaw model is a critical value affecting cyclic performance of cylinders.