A fleet of more than 300 LNG carriers is currently being used for the transport of LNG around the world. Considering the increasing trade in LNG in recent years, possible major hazards are the focus of public discussion. At this year's Gastech conference in Abu Dhabi, Dr Gerd-Michael Würsig, from the classification society and technical assurance and consulting company Germanischer Lloyd (GL), presented a study on major hazard scenarios in the event pool fires around LNG tankers.
The paper, produced in collaboration with two German universities, Moss Maritime and the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), analyses the response of an LNG containment system to an enveloping pool fire.
"The evaluations include a finite element buckling analysis of the tank cover, an extensive CFD (computational fluid dynamics) simulation of the insulation system and tank supports as well as an overall thermodynamic analysis," said Dr Gerd-Michael Würsig, GL's expert on liquified gas tankers, in his presentation.
A number of previous studies have been conducted to assess the consequences and risks of LNG spills as a result of marine accidents.
"Most such studies have focused on the risk to the population in the vicinity of a terminal or damage to ship structure," said Dr Würsig.
In this new study, GL experts took a closer look at the consequences of an LNG containment system under fire.
"There are considerable uncertainties about the realistic burning characteristics and consequently about the emissive power of a large LNG pool fire," Dr Würsig explained. "Consequently, this study focuses on the effects within the insulation system and ship structure and defines the boundaries for possible damages to ship and tank systems."
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