Thermally insulating sealed tank

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11933456-B2
Application number	US-202017442475-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 1, 2020
Priority date	Apr 1, 2019
Publication date	Mar 19, 2024
Grant date	Mar 19, 2024

Abstract

A sealed and thermally insulating tank incorporated in a supporting structure ( 2 ), the tank including at least one inclined tank wall ( 1 ) forming an angle with a horizontal direction and fixed to a supporting wall of the supporting structure ( 2 ) is disclosed. The tank wall ( 1 ) has a multilayer structure including successively, in the direction of thickness from the outside to the inside of the tank, a thermally insulating barrier ( 3 ) held against the corresponding supporting wall and a sealed membrane ( 4 ) carried by the thermally insulating barrier ( 3 ). The tank includes sealed strips ( 15 ) in the space formed between the thermally insulating barrier ( 3 ) and the supporting wall.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A sealed and thermally insulating tank ( 71 ) incorporated in a supporting structure ( 2 ), the tank including at least one inclined tank wall ( 1 ) forming an angle with a horizontal direction and fixed to a supporting wall of the supporting structure ( 2 ), the tank wall ( 1 ) having a multilayer structure including successively, in the direction of the thickness ( 52 ) from the outside to the inside of the tank, a thermally insulating barrier ( 3 ) held against the corresponding supporting wall and a sealed membrane ( 4 ) carried by the thermally insulating barrier ( 3 ), the tank comprising sealed or substantially sealed strips ( 15 ) in the space formed between the thermally insulating barrier ( 3 ) and the supporting wall, wherein the sealed strips ( 15 ) segment the space between the thermally insulating barrier ( 3 ) and the supporting wall in a plurality of successive zones ( 14 ) in a direction of a greatest slope ( 51 ) of the wall, the zones ( 14 ) extending over an entire transverse dimension of the tank wall ( 1 ) in a transverse direction ( 50 ) inclined relative to the direction of the greatest slope.

2. The tank as claimed in claim 1 , in which at least one of the sealed strips ( 15 ) is extended over all the transverse dimension of the tank wall ( 1 ).

3. The tank as claimed in claim 1 , in which at least one of the sealed strips is formed of a polymer material, for example a mastic or a closed cell foam, for example a closed cell polyurethane foam, or the combination of an EPDM rubber strip with a polyester foam strip.

4. The tank as claimed in claim 1 , in which at least one of the sealed strips ( 15 ) includes a plurality of strip portions ( 16 ) connected to one another in sealed manner by at least one fishplate ( 18 ), the fishplate ( 18 ) being disposed between two adjacent strip portions ( 16 ).

5. The tank as claimed in claim 4 , in which the fishplate ( 18 ) has a first end situated in a first strip portion ( 16 ) and a second end situated in a second strip portion ( 16 ), the second strip portion ( 16 ) being adjacent to the first strip portion ( 16 ).

6. The tank as claimed in claim 4 , in which the thermally insulating barrier ( 3 ) comprises a plurality of insulating blocks ( 5 ) juxtaposed to one another in the direction of the greatest slope and in the transverse direction, at least one of the sealed strips ( 15 ) being interrupted at the level of an interface or an interstice between two adjacent insulating blocks ( 5 ), the fishplate ( 18 ) being disposed between two adjacent insulating blocks ( 5 ) so as to connect two adjacent strip portions ( 16 ) in sealed manner.

7. The tank as claimed in claim 1 , in which at least one of the substantially sealed strips ( 15 ) is traversed by a high head loss communication channel ( 17 ) so that the zones ( 14 ) separated by said at least one substantially sealed strip ( 15 ) are in slow fluidic communication enabling the pressure to be balanced between the two zones without allowing significant convective flow.

8. The tank as claimed in claim 7 , in which each zone ( 14 ) is in fluidic communication with an adjacent zone ( 14 ) via at least high head loss communication channel ( 17 ).

9. The tank as claimed in claim 7 , in which the head loss of a communication channel ( 17 ) is greater than or equal to , where AP is the minimum head loss of the communication channel, PG the driving pressure of the gas situated in the space between the thermally insulating barrier ( 3 ) and the supporting structure ( 2 ) of the tank wall ( 1 ) under normal conditions of use of the tank, and n representing the number of zones ( 14 ) segmented by the substantially sealed strips ( 15 ).

10. The tank as claimed in claim 9 , in which the high head loss communication channel ( 17 ) includes a porous material filling the communication channel ( 17 ), the porous material having a porosity configured to result in a head loss greater than or equal to the minimum head loss ΔP.

11. The tank as claimed in claim 10 , in which the porous material of the communication channel is chosen from melamine foam, open cell polyurethane (PU) foam and fiber braids.

12. The tank as claimed in claim 7 , in which at least one of the substantially sealed strips is discontinuous only at the level of the communication channel or channels.

13. The tank as claimed in claim 7 , in which a plurality of substantially sealed strips are traversed by a communication channel, the communication channel of a substantially sealed strip being offset from the communication channel of an adjacent substantially sealed strip in the transverse direction so as to form a network of communication channels in a quincunx arrangement.

14. The tank as claimed in claim 1 , in which the thermally insulating barrier comprises a plurality of rows of insulating blocks extending in the transverse direction, the insulating blocks having a longitudinal dimension in the direction of greatest slope, two adjacent sealed or substantially sealed strips being spaced from one another in the direction of the greatest slope by a dimension equal or substantially equal to the longitudinal dimension of the insulating blocks.

15. The tank as claimed in claim 1 , in which the sealed membrane ( 4 ) consists of a corrugated sealed membrane ( 4 ) including a plurality of corrugated metal plates ( 9 ) welded to one another.

16. The tank as claimed in claim 1 , in which the tank comprises a single sealed membrane ( 4 ) and a single thermally insulating barrier ( 3 ).

17. The tank as claimed in claim 1 , in which the sealed membrane ( 4 ) is a secondary sealed membrane and the thermally insulating barrier ( 3 ) is a secondary thermally insulating barrier, the tank including a primary thermally insulating barrier carried by the secondary sealed membrane and a primary sealed membrane carried by the primary thermally insulating barrier.

18. A ship ( 70 ) for the transport of a cold liquid product, the ship including a double hull ( 72 ) and a tank ( 71 ) as claimed in claim 1 disposed in the double hull.

19. A transfer system for a cold liquid product, the system including a ship ( 70 ) as claimed in claim 18 , insulated pipes ( 73 , 79 , 76 , 81 ) arranged in such a manner as to connect the tank ( 71 ) installed in the hull of the ship to a floating or terrestrial storage unit ( 77 ) and a pump for driving a flow of cold liquid product through the insulated pipes from or to the floating or terrestrial storage installation to or from the tank of the ship.

20. A method of loading or offloading a ship ( 70 ) as claimed in claim 18 , in which a cold liquid product is routed through insulated pipes ( 73 , 79 , 76 , 81 ) from or to a floating or terrestrial storage installation ( 77 ) to or from the tank ( 71 ) of the ship.

Assignees

• Gaztransport Et Technigaz

Inventors

• Deletre Bruno
• Boucard Catherine
• Gourmelen Camille
• Senseby Laurine

Classifications

• F17C3/027 Primary

  Wallpanels for so-called membrane tanks · CPC title

• F17C2201/0157

  Polygonal · CPC title

• F17C2201/052

  large (>1000 m3) · CPC title

• F17C2203/0358

  in form of panels · CPC title

• F17C2203/0631

  Three or more walls · CPC title