Research on temperature field and thermal stress of liquefied natural gas carrier with incomplete insulation

The insulation of membrane type liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier is composed of plywood boxes filled with perlite. Within the service period, considering of the effects of load conditions, such as sloshing, wave load, it is possible to have some damage of the plywood box, leakage of perlite, and failure of the insulation box. LNG carrier without whole protection of effective insulation is dangerous. Hull structure is extremely fragile when exposed to ultra-low temperature. In order to solve these problems, firstly a study on insulation boxes’ character and work condition is carried out and some presuppositions of partial disabled insulation are put forward. Secondly the thermal system of LNG carrier is analyzed to find out an effective way to simulate the thermal action of close air between outer and inner hull. Then a calculation about temperature field and thermal stress is done by MSC/PATRAN&NASTRAN. At the end it is concluded that LNG carrier with incomplete insulation is dangerous and needs to be avoided.