Design of Internal Supports for Double-Walled Liquefied Natural Gas Road Tanker

Abstract

Transport and storage of liquefied natural gas (LNG) requires special double-walled cryogenic tanks. To provide a liquid state of LNG throughout entire storage time a temperature inside the tank should be equal −160 °C under the pressure of around 7 bar. Maintaining these parameters requires a vacuum insulation system and internal supports designed to minimize heat leakage into the tank. Additionally, the internal supports must be able to transfer complex mechanical loads that may occur during the operation of the tanker. Combinations and values of directional mechanical loads and thermal loads, to be accepted in designing mobile cryogenic tanks, are determined by proper vessels standards. In this article, we proposed the construction of internal supports for 25 m3 road tanker, which structure allows to reduce heat leakage into the internal tank, while transferring the complex mechanical loads. Tests of the presented solutions were carried out applying both mechanical and thermal finite element analysis using ANSYS software.