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Thermal stress analysis of concrete wall of LNG tank during construction period

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Abstract

As the demand for energy growing rapidly these years, liquefied natural gas (LNG) has become one of the significant parts of the energy source for its high calorific value and performances, as well as the ease of transport and storage. Hence, increasing number of LNG tank has been constructed. The outer wall of LNG tank is usually made by reinforced concrete and the thermal induced cracking may occur during construction period because of the heat of hydration and concrete shrinkage. The finite element (FE) method was adopted in this paper to study the temperature and thermal stress distribution on the concrete wall of a 160,000 m3 LNG tank. The detailed FE model was first established and mesh convergence analysis was conducted to determine the suitable element size. The heat transfer analysis was conducted to obtain the temperature field on the concrete wall, based on which the incremental method was adopted to calculate the thermal stress. The thermal induced cracks distribution was then obtained by comparing the first principle tensile stress with the ultimate tensile stress of concrete. It was found that the cracks in vertical direction appeared at the concrete wall surface and the cracks in circumferential direction appeared at the buttress column surface. In addition, the major influence factors on the thermal stress were also investigated and the construction season and quality showed significantly effect on the thermal stress.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Lab of Structures Dynamic Behavior and Control of the Ministry of Education, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150090, China

    Ximei Zhai & Heng Wang

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117576, Singapore

    Yonghui Wang

Authors
  1. Ximei Zhai
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  2. Yonghui Wang
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  3. Heng Wang
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Correspondence to Yonghui Wang.

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Zhai, X., Wang, Y. & Wang, H. Thermal stress analysis of concrete wall of LNG tank during construction period. Mater Struct 49, 2393–2406 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1617/s11527-015-0656-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1617/s11527-015-0656-9

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