Development of a QFD trade-off methodology for automotive hydrogen tanks

Development of automotive vehicle standards for hydrogen tanks is an emerging process. A series of best practices, in this area, was identified via literature review and confirmed by domain experts. These practices were analysed and integrated to derive an approach for design trade-off analysis. Quality function deployment (QFD) is a well-known Japanese production planning technique. It involves the construction of a series of linked matrices associating customer requirements to progressively more detailed levels of product characteristics. A QFD analogue approach was developed for this research, then applied, using actual experimental data. Fundamental to the application of good systems engineering principles is an understanding of such critical factors as cost, risk (safety) and service life (duration of use), and how these factors relate to the overall design. The key benefit of this effort is the formulation of a means by which any two implementable hydrogen tank designs for vehicles can be compared consistently with regard to trade-off between these critical factors.