MMA 167 Marine Structural Engineering

Assignment 1

LNG Carriers

Written by:

Hale Saglam Ulrikke Brandt Britta Wodecki

November 2012

MMA167- Marine structural engineering Professor Jonas Ringsberg

Assignment 1 Hale Saglam - Ulrikke Brandt - Britta Wodecki

Contents
1. 2. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 2 Tank Types ................................................................................................................... 3 2.1. The membrane tank.............................................................................................. 3 2.1.1. GTT 96 Membrane System ............................................................................ 3 2.1.2. Mark III Membrane System ........................................................................... 4 2.2. The semi-membrane tank..................................................................................... 4 2.3. Independent Types ............................................................................................... 5 2.3.1. Type-A Containment System ......................................................................... 5 2.3.2. Type-B Containment System ......................................................................... 5 3. 4. Fatigue and Strength of LNG Ships .............................................................................. 7 LNG carrier design in the future .................................................................................. 8 4.1. Sloshing ................................................................................................................. 8 5. Reference .................................................................................................................... 9

Contents of Figures
Figure 1: Methane distribution [1] ..................................................................................... 2 Figure 2: World energy consumption by commodity [1] .................................................... 2 Figure 3: Diffination of elements ........................................................................................ 3 Figure 4: Gaz Transport System [3] ..................................................................................... 4 Figure 5: Mark III Membrane System [4] ............................................................................ 4 Figure 6: 78000 m3 LNG carrier with Type-A tanks [5]....................................................... 5 Figure 7: Liquid Methane Carrier Type A [3] .................................................................... 5 Figure 8: 137000 m3 LNG carrier with Type-B tanks (Kvaerner Moss system) [5] ............. 6 Figure 9: Kvaerner-Moss spherical tank [3] ........................................................................ 6 Figure 10: Critical Areas for Spherical Moss Tank LNG [7].................................................. 7 Figure 11: Critical Areas for Membrane Tank LNG [7] ........................................................ 7 Figure 12: Typical LNG flows in membrane tank at high fillings & low fillings [8] .............. 8 Figure 13: LNG velocity fields in prismatic (membrane) & spherical (Moss) tank [8] ........ 8

MMA167- Marine structural engineering Professor Jonas Ringsberg

Assignment 1 Hale Saglam - Ulrikke Brandt - Britta Wodecki

1. Introduction
Natural gas naturally occurs within the earth and it has been used as an energy source since 1825. Natural gas was first discovered in Fredonia, New York. Later, sources have been discovered all over the world. Almost 40% of the natural gasses are in the Middle East. The distribution of the gas can be seen in Figure 1. IMO defines the liquefied gas as gaseous substance at ambient temperature and pressure, but liquefied by pressurization or refrigeration sometimes a combination of both. All liquefied gasses are hydrocarbons and flammable in nature [1].

5%

4% 1%
Middle East Russian Federation

9% 8% 29% 44%

Africa Asia North America South America EU

Figure 1: Methane distribution [1] Figure 2: World energy consumption by commodity [1]

As the natural gas is used as an energy source all around the world, the need for the transportation of the gas arises. The first LNG ship, Methane Pioneer, was used for transportation of natural gas in 1959 from Louisiana to Canvey Island. About 5,000 cubic meters of LNG were transported. The trade was a technical success because it demonstrated that it was possible to transport the gas safely across the ocean, but from an economical view it was a failure. The Methane Pioneer was very small and slow which resulted in a high unit cost. The failure helped to grow trade as bigger ships were built and the design principle of LNG ships has been improved since 1965. As shown in Figure 2, natural gas is the third major energy source transported by sea and with the increase the fleet of LNG vessels follows. In 2007 the LNG fleet was about 240 vessels and the order book consisted of 140 vessels [1]. The gas does not need to be liquefied when transported by inland transport since the transportation is provided by pipelines. However, as the available cargo space is limited for sea transport, the gas should be liquefied in order to carry as much as possible. Liquefying the gas is done by reducing the temperature to -163 Celsius at atmospheric pressure. This decreases the original volume by 99.8 %. The low temperature raises issues for the ship design. The material used for the ship and the technology required to load and discharge need to withstand the very low temperature and this makes the LNG carrier diverse from tanker vessels.

MMA167- Marine structural engineering Professor Jonas Ringsberg

Assignment 1 Hale Saglam - Ulrikke Brandt - Britta Wodecki

2. Tank Types
During the development of LNG carriers there have been different tank designs. The main purpose of the cargo containment system is to keep the gas below its boiling point and maintaining the adequate insulation. For this purpose it is important to select the appropriate containment system which is also determined by taking into consideration the tanks capability to withstand sloshing loads. The tank designs can be divided into two main categories; the membrane or the independent tanks. The membrane category consists of two tank design types used for LNG, namely the membrane tanks and the semi-membrane tanks. Even though the tank types have different designs, some characteristic elements are present in all of the tanks. The double bottom and the secondary barrier are very important in case of leakages of the LNG to prevent pollution of the ocean. These elements are shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Diffination of elements

2.1.

The membrane tank

The membrane tank system consists of a very thin primary layer (membrane) supported by insulation. The system is directly supported by the ships inner hull. The membrane containment systems must always have a secondary barrier in case of a leakage in the primary barrier. The membrane is designed so that the thermal expansion or contraction is compensated without stressing of the membrane. Generally, two types of membrane tanks are used. [2] Gaz Tranport and Technigaz, the two leading companies developing the two main types of membrane tank types, fusioned to GTT. 2.1.1. GTT 96 Membrane System The GTT 96 Membrane System, formerly known as the Gaz Transport system, consists of two identical Invar membranes and two independent thermal insulation layers. The primary and secondary Invar membranes are made of a 0.7 mm thickness of 36% nickel-steel alloy, which has a very low coefficient of thermal expansion. Both thermal insulation layers consist of prefabricated plywood boxes filled with perlite as shown in Figure 4. [4]

MMA167- Marine structural engineering Professor Jonas Ringsberg

Assignment 1 Hale Saglam - Ulrikke Brandt - Britta Wodecki

Figure 4: Gaz Transport System [3]

2.1.2. Mark III Membrane System The Mark III Membrane System, formerly known as the Technigaz system, consists of a primary corrugated stainless steel membrane and a prefabricated insulation panel including the secondary triplex membrane as shown in Figure 5. The primary membrane is 1.2 mm thick. The polyurethane foam insulation is made of prefabricated panels. It contains the primary and secondary insulation and the secondary membrane. The secondary membrane is made of a thin sheet of aluminum between two layers of glass cloth and resin. To anchor the insulation and spread the loads evenly, the panels are bonded to the inner hull by resin ropes. [4]

Figure 5: Mark III Membrane System [4]

2.2.

The semi-membrane tank

This tank type is similar to the membrane tank design. The primary barrier is much thicker than in the case with membrane tanks. The corners have large radius and are not supported, so this part of the tank can withstand expansion and contraction. The bottom and the sides of the tanks are straight plates and are supported through insulation by the adjacent hull structure. It is through these connections the weight and the dynamic loads are transferred to the hull.

MMA167- Marine structural engineering Professor Jonas Ringsberg

Assignment 1 Hale Saglam - Ulrikke Brandt - Britta Wodecki

The tank is self-supported in empty condition, but only in the empty-condition and not in the loaded condition. Self-supported means that the primary barrier is stiff enough to carry its own weight, but when the additional weight from the gas puts pressure on the tank the primary barrier is not strong enough and the tank needs support from the hull structure. In other words, the tank is not designed to be placed on the deck, it must be inside the vessel. [2,3]

2.3.

Independent Types

Independent types of containment systems are divided into 2 categories, as Type-A containment system and Type-B containment system. These tanks are generally designed as spherical but there are examples of prismatic ones. 2.3.1. Type-A Containment System The Type A system is designed as box shapes or prismatic tanks. This type is used in early LNG ships and the design is carried out using the traditional methods of general ship structural analysis. An example of LNG ships with box shaped tanks is seen in Figure 6.

Figure 6: 78000 m3 LNG carrier with Type-A tanks [5]

Early LNG ships such as the Methane Princess and Methane Progress were fitted with self-supporting tanks of aluminum alloy having center-line bulkheads. The balsa wood insulation system was attached to the inner hull (secondary barrier) and each insulated hold contained three tanks. The midship section drawing is seen in Figure 7. Later vessels built with tanks of this category have adopted a prismatic tank design. [3]

Figure 7: Liquid Methane Carrier Type A [3]

2.3.2. Type-B Containment System Type-B cargo containment systems are the most used types since they are improved in terms of fatigue and crack propagation and the main principle is based on the crack detection before 5

MMA167- Marine structural engineering Professor Jonas Ringsberg

Assignment 1 Hale Saglam - Ulrikke Brandt - Britta Wodecki

failure, which allows the usage of a partial secondary barrier. [6] The independent B type tanks are generally categorized as spherical moss and self-supported prismatic tanks. An example of a spherical moss system is shown in Figure 8 as Kvaerner Moss system.

Figure 8: 137000 m3 LNG carrier with Type-B tanks (Kvaerner Moss system) [5]

Kvaerner type tank systems are used in most LNG ships. The tanks are made of aluminum alloy or where the only connection between tanks and hull is made of 9% nickel steel which is seen in Figure 9.

Figure 9: Kvaerner-Moss spherical tank [3]

Type-B tank systems are designed to provide sensors to detect leakage and ability to repair itself periodically before any critical cracks occur. This type of cargo containment systems have comparatively less cargo space, for instance the cargo capacity of 5 large spheres is approximately 125.000 m3. Independent Type-B containment systems are not resistant to sloshing - which will be explained in detail in the next section- and they have some disadvantages. The only way to increase the cargo capacity is to increase the diameter of spherical tanks and this will be gained by increasing the ship length which is not desirable for stability and global strength aspects. Besides, the ship will have less hull volume efficiency and a high area affected by wind and a limited deck area for the installation of regasification equipment. [3,5].

MMA167- Marine structural engineering Professor Jonas Ringsberg

Assignment 1 Hale Saglam - Ulrikke Brandt - Britta Wodecki

3. Fatigue and Strength of LNG Ships

The growth in the size of LNG ships has produced a problem of global strength and fatigue problems. The stress levels are increased compared to the old conventional LNG ship types. Wide openings in the strength deck and non-continuous tank covers generate extreme torsional response of the hull in large spherical Moss type LNG carriers. The critical areas, as a result of fatigue, are shown in Figure 10. Membrane type tank containment systems are more exposed to the vertical bending moment. Besides, the stiffness between longitudinal and bottom transverse girders and the increase in length of web frames have a big impact on the fatigue life of the inner hull hopper knuckles and the foot of the cofferdam as seen in Figure 11. The other parts such as cofferdam stringers, cofferdam girders in the double bottom and the liquid cover dome have an influence on fatigue.

Figure 10: Critical Areas for Spherical Moss Tank LNG [7] Figure 11: Critical Areas for Membrane Tank LNG [7]

MMA167- Marine structural engineering Professor Jonas Ringsberg

Assignment 1 Hale Saglam - Ulrikke Brandt - Britta Wodecki

4. LNG carrier design in the future

The demand for LNG is still increasing. Forecasts for LNG show that the demand will double during the next decade, which results in the LNG carriers need to be more efficient. The size of the ship needs to increase, but the vessels also need to be faster, have a higher operational flexibility and be more efficiently. Most of the propulsions today are steam turbines, which have low efficiency and by replacing those turbines with e.g. gas turbines the ship will be more efficient. From a structural view, to meet the high demand is to increase the size of the ship. By increasing the size of the tanks a new issue occurs; the sloshing. [9]

4.1.

Sloshing

Sloshing loads are as important design parameters as the fatigue consideration, since LNG ships carry huge amounts of energy, it is important that the tanks and the ships hull have an adequate resistance to sloshing forces. The sloshing effects can be alleviated by using large chamfers and strengthened insulation systems in the upper part of the tanks. This system allows the increase of the containment limit of up to 80%. Many studies have been carried out since the 1970s and there are examples from Bureau Veritas numerical CFD analysis, exhibiting different types of sloshing flows and LNG velocity fields generated in tanks of large LNG Carriers, are given in Error! Reference source not found. and Error! Reference source not found.. [8]

Figure 12: Typical LNG flows in membrane tank at high fillings & low fillings [8]

Figure 13: LNG velocity fields in prismatic (membrane) & spherical (Moss) tank [8]

MMA167- Marine structural engineering Professor Jonas Ringsberg

Assignment 1 Hale Saglam - Ulrikke Brandt - Britta Wodecki

5. Reference
[1] M. Stopford, Maritime Economics (2009), 3rd edition. Oxon: Routledge [2] International Safety Guide for Inland Navigation Tank-barges and Terminals, chapter 33: http://www.isgintt.org/files/Chapter_33en_isgintt_062010.pdf [3] Eyres, D. J., Ship Construction (12/2006), Butterworth-Heinemann [4] GTT, 11/2012 http://www.gtt.fr/content.php?cat=34&menu=60 [5] T. Miller, The carriage of liquefied gases, UK P&I Club [6] Liquefied Gas Carrier, DNV Part 5 Chapter 5, January 2012 [7] T. Lindemark, F. Kamsvg and S. Vlasgrd, Fatigue analysis of gas carriers, Maritime Technical Consultancy Det Norkse Veritas AS [8] M. Zalar, S. Malenica & L. Diebold, Selced hydrodynamic issues in design of large LNG carriers, Bureau Veritas [9] J. WANG, A study on Technical Development on LNG Vessel, IEEE Conference in Systems, 2009