Experimental and numerical analysis of a membrane cargo containment system for liquefied natural gas

Abstract

ABSTRACTMembrane cargo containment systems (MCCS) have been developed by GTT for liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanks and proved to be an efficient technology for transportation and storage of large volumes. In regard to LNG as fuel, the current aim is to introduce MCCS as fuel tanks for merchant ships. These ships will operate in areas of high traffic density. The risk of collision and grounding cannot be neglected. The latter is bound by the deformation capacity of the inner barrier of the MCCS prior to LNG leakage. In order to contribute to the understanding of the crashworthiness, a large-scale nearly four-by-four-metre mock-up was built and tested experimentally at the Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH). These experimental results serve as a validation basis for numerical crashworthiness analysis of membrane-based cargo containment systems for LNG. In both numerical analysis and experimental testing, DNV GL has been involved.