Study on Sloshing Structural Strength Assessment for Membrane-Type Liquefied Hydrogen Cargo Containment System

Hydrogen is an eco-friendly fuel that does not emit greenhouse gases, and demand for it has been gradually increasing. When the hydrogen era arrives, intercontinental high-capacity hydrogen carriers are likely to be required, and for this, the membrane-type LH2 cargo containment system (CCS) is actively being developed. In the development of liquefied CCS, sloshing pressure is an essential element in structural safety assessment. Currently, there are limitations in directly deriving the sloshing pressures of the LH2 tank through sloshing model tests. This study proposes a methodology to indirectly predict the sloshing pressure generated in a membrane-type LH2 cargo tank. Considering the characteristics of hydrogen, high-efficiency insulation materials should be applied to LH2 CCS, which increases the importance of structural design. To precisely calculate the sloshing capacity of this LH2 CCS, heat transfer analysis and structural analysis are performed as a series of processes. The stress concentration regions and dynamic effect observed in LH2 CCS were investigated, and the structural safety of LH2 CCS is determined by comparing the derived sloshing capacity with estimated design sloshing pressure. This is expected to be used as valuable reference for the detailed development of LH2 CCS in the future.