Study on the characteristics of perlite insulation for the storage tank in LNG carrier

As the LNG demands are growing, the constructions of LNG FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Off-loading) and LNG carriers have been constantly increased, and the various design of storage tank has been tried. This paper propose that the material of inner storage tanks is made of 5~9% Ni steel plate and perlite powder insulation instead of urethane foam block. It needs essentially to obtain the proper design specifications that are the pressure of perlite, the characteristics of resilient blanket as the pressure absorber, optimum thickness of blanket and design pressure of tank wall, etc. to enable the perlite insulation system to LNG carrier, The results show that the design thickness of blanket should be between 1/4 to 1/3 of insulation width and the optimum rate becomes 30%, and the design pressure be applied below 1,500 Pa with blanket thickness.