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US-12624796-B2 - Liquefied gas storage facility comprising a polygonal load-bearing structure

US12624796B2US 12624796 B2US12624796 B2US 12624796B2US-12624796-B2

Abstract

A liquefied gas storage facility ( 1 ) has a load-bearing structure ( 10 ) having a bottom wall ( 11 ) and a vertical load-bearing wall ( 12 ) made up of N vertical load-bearing panels ( 14 ), and a tank comprising a bottom wall ( 21 ) and a vertical wall ( 22 ). The bottom wall ( 21 ) has a plurality of angular sectors. The corrugated sealing membrane ( 70, 170 ) of each angular sector ( 25 ) has first corrugations ( 72 ). The corrugated sealing membrane ( 70, 170 ) of each angular sector ( 25 ) has a plurality of metal plates ( 71 ) arranged to form ring portions ( 75 ). The ring portions ( 75 ) consist of a set of complete metal plates. The total number of first corrugations ( 72 ) present on the ring portions ( 75 ) increases in the direction of the vertical wall ( 22 ). The total number being increased only every M successive ring portions ( 75 ), where M is a natural integer greater than or equal to 2.

Inventors

  • Jean-Guy ROUZEAU
  • Leo COQUAND

Assignees

  • GAZTRANSPORT ET TECHNIGAZ

Dates

Publication Date
20260512
Application Date
20241022
Priority Date
20231027

Claims (15)

  1. 1 . A liquefied gas storage facility ( 1 ) comprising: a load-bearing structure ( 10 ) having an internal space delimited by a bottom load-bearing wall ( 11 ) and a vertical load-bearing wall ( 12 ), a contour of said bottom load-bearing wall ( 11 ) having the shape of an N-sided regular polygon, N being an integer greater than or equal to 4, said vertical load-bearing wall ( 12 ) being made up of N vertical load-bearing panels ( 14 ) and forming a polygonal cylindrical surface having said regular polygon as its directrix, where each of the N sides of the polygon corresponds to an intersection between the bottom load-bearing wall ( 11 ) and one of said vertical load-bearing panels ( 14 ); and a sealed tank ( 20 ) installed in the internal space of the load-bearing structure ( 10 ), the sealed tank ( 20 ) comprising a bottom wall ( 21 ) placed on the bottom load-bearing wall ( 11 ) and a vertical wall ( 22 ) placed on the vertical load-bearing wall ( 12 ), said vertical wall ( 22 ) being made up of N vertical panels ( 24 ), each vertical panel of the vertical wall ( 22 ) being fixed to one of the N vertical load-bearing panels ( 14 ), said bottom wall ( 21 ) comprising a plurality of angular sectors that are the image of one another through rotation by a predetermined angle about a vertical axis (Z), the predetermined angle being equal to k.360°/N, where k is a positive integer less than or equal to half of N, each angular sector ( 25 ) of the bottom wall ( 21 ) being connected to at least k of the N vertical panels ( 24 ) of the vertical wall ( 22 ), the sealed tank ( 20 ) comprising a corrugated sealing membrane ( 70 , 170 ) intended to be in contact with a liquefied gas, wherein the corrugated sealing membrane ( 70 , 170 ) of each angular sector ( 25 ) of the bottom wall ( 21 ) has first corrugations ( 72 ) oriented along a sector axis (X), the sector axis (X) being perpendicular to a first vertical panel connected to said angular sector ( 25 ), the first corrugations ( 72 ) being spaced one from the next by a regular corrugation pitch, wherein the corrugated sealing membrane ( 70 , 170 ) of each angular sector ( 25 ) of the bottom wall ( 21 ) comprises a plurality of metal plates ( 71 ) welded together in a fluid-tight manner, the metal plates ( 71 ) being arranged to form ring portions ( 75 ) juxtaposed successively along the sector axis (X), each ring portion ( 75 ) consisting of a set of complete metal plates, and wherein the total number of first corrugations ( 72 ) per ring portion ( 75 ) that are present on the ring portions ( 75 ) increases in the direction of the first vertical panel, said total number per ring portion ( 75 ) being increased only every M successive ring portion ( 75 ) where M is a natural integer greater than or equal to 2.
  2. 2 . The liquefied gas storage facility ( 1 ) according to claim 1 , wherein the ring portions ( 75 ) have an inner edge and an outer edge which are perpendicular to the sector axis (X) and each have a width extending along the sector axis (X) between the inner edge and the outer edge of the ring portion ( 75 ), said width being equal in several of said ring portions ( 75 ).
  3. 3 . The liquefied gas storage facility ( 1 ) according to claim 2 , wherein the width of the ring portion ( 75 ) situated close to a centre of the bottom wall ( 21 ) and/or the width of the ring portion ( 75 ) situated close to the vertical wall ( 22 ) is different from the width of the other ring portions ( 75 ).
  4. 4 . The liquefied gas storage facility ( 1 ) according to claim 1 , wherein the regular corrugation pitch is greater than or equal to 400 mm, preferably greater than or equal to 800 mm.
  5. 5 . The liquefied gas storage facility ( 1 ) according to claim 1 , wherein each ring portion ( 75 ) of an angular sector ( 25 ) comprises at least one corrugated metal connecting plate ( 71 A) situated on one lateral edge of the ring portion ( 75 ), the corrugated metal connecting plates ( 71 A) being configured to connect said ring portion ( 75 ) to a ring portion ( 75 ) of an adjacent angular sector ( 25 ), the corrugated metal connecting plates ( 71 A) that connect the ring portions ( 75 ) being aligned with one another in a radial direction, the radial direction being inclined with respect to the sector axis (X).
  6. 6 . The liquefied gas storage facility ( 1 ) according to claim 5 , wherein the sealing membrane of the angular sector ( 25 ) of the bottom wall ( 21 ) comprises a radial corrugation ( 77 ) situated near one edge of the angular sector ( 25 ), the radial corrugation ( 77 ) extending in the radial direction.
  7. 7 . The liquefied gas storage facility ( 1 ) according to claim 6 , wherein the first corrugations ( 72 ) of the angular sector ( 25 ) comprise first complete corrugations ( 721 ) extending from a junction ( 28 ) between the bottom wall ( 21 ) and the vertical wall ( 22 ) as far as a central ring portion near a centre of the bottom wall ( 21 ), and first partial corrugations ( 722 ) which are interrupted by a corrugation interruption ( 723 ) where said first partial corrugation crosses one of the corrugated metal connecting plates ( 71 A), the corrugation interruption ( 723 ) being situated some distance from the radial corrugation ( 77 ).
  8. 8 . The liquefied gas storage facility ( 1 ) according to claim 6 , wherein the radial corrugation ( 77 ) of the angular sector ( 25 ) is produced on the corrugated metal connecting plates ( 71 A).
  9. 9 . The liquefied gas storage facility ( 1 ) according to claim 5 , wherein the corrugated metal connecting plate ( 71 A) for a ring portion ( 75 ) of row A is identical to the corrugated metal connecting plate ( 71 A) of a ring portion ( 75 ) of row A+B, where the row is defined as being a natural integer incremented by progressing along the sector axis (X) towards the vertical wall ( 22 ), A being a natural integer greater than or equal to 1 and B being a natural integer greater than or equal to 2.
  10. 10 . The liquefied gas storage facility ( 1 ) according to claim 1 , wherein the sealing membrane of an angular sector ( 25 ) of the bottom wall ( 21 ) comprises second corrugations ( 73 ) spaced apart from one another and extending at least partially perpendicular to the first corrugations ( 72 ).
  11. 11 . The liquefied gas storage facility ( 1 ) according to claim 7 , wherein the sealing membrane of an angular sector ( 25 ) of the bottom wall ( 21 ) comprises second corrugations ( 73 ) spaced apart from one another and extending at least partially perpendicular to the first corrugations ( 72 ), and wherein the corrugation interruption ( 723 ) of the first partial corrugations ( 722 ) is situated between two adjacent second corrugations ( 73 ).
  12. 12 . The liquefied gas storage facility ( 1 ) according to claim 1 , wherein the storage facility ( 1 ) is an onshore storage facility.
  13. 13 . The liquefied gas storage facility ( 1 ) according to claim 3 , wherein the other ring portions ( 75 ) have identical widths to one another.
  14. 14 . The liquefied gas storage facility ( 1 ) according to claim 4 , wherein the regular corrugation pitch is between 800 and 1200 mm.
  15. 15 . The liquefied gas storage facility ( 1 ) according to claim 5 , wherein the radial direction is inclined with respect to the sector axis (X) by an angle equal to half the predetermined angle.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The invention relates to a liquefied gas storage facility and to a marking-out method for constructing this facility. More particularly, the liquefied gas storage facility comprises a load-bearing structure having a bottom wall in the shape of a regular polygon. TECHNOLOGICAL BACKGROUND A liquefied gas storage facility comprising a load-bearing structure having an internal space delimited by a bottom load-bearing wall and a sealed and thermally insulating tank installed in the internal space of the load-bearing structure is known from document FR-A-2912385 or FR-A-3121196. The tank comprises a bottom wall placed on the bottom load-bearing wall and a vertical wall placed on the vertical load-bearing wall. The vertical wall has a plurality of vertical panels. The bottom wall has a plurality of sectors that are the image of one another through rotation, and where said bottom wall has the shape of a regular polygon each side of which corresponds to one of said vertical panels. The number of vertical panels is for example chosen to be equal to 56. The sealed and thermally insulating tank comprises a corrugated sealing membrane intended to be in contact with a liquefied gas and a thermally insulated barrier situated between the sealing membrane and the load-bearing structure. The sealing membrane of the vertical wall comprises vertical corrugations. As for the sealing membrane of the bottom wall, this comprises first corrugations spaced apart from one another by a corrugation pitch and oriented along a sector axis perpendicular to the vertical panel connected to said angular sector. The corrugated sealing membrane of each angular sector of the bottom wall comprises a plurality of rectangular metal plates welded together in a fluid tight manner such that they are arranged to form ring portions juxtaposed successively along the sector axis. The term ring portion applies to a set of complete metal plates. In other words, the edges of the ring portions consist of the edges of the metal plates. The ring portions situated in the various angular sectors are joined together to form rings around a central portion of the bottom wall. The prior art applies a layout strategy arranged by angular sector which seeks to establish a link between the corrugation pitch of the first corrugations and the length of the metal plates, which defines a width of the ring portion, and the angle of the angular sector so as notably to reduce the number of different parts in an angular sector. Nevertheless, by varying the corrugation pitch, and notably when this pitch increases, this layout strategy is no longer able to maintain consistent angular-sector angles and/or consistent metal-plate lengths and thus reduces the number of possible solutions. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION One idea behind the invention is that of improving the layout strategy whereby the bottom wall is arranged in angular sectors in such a way as to keep the angular-sector angles consistent and the sheet lengths consistent, without making the layout more complex. One object of the invention is notably to create a membrane layout that allows the corrugation pitch to be greater than the increment in length of the outer edge of the ring portion between two successive rings. This length increment is close to the width of the ring portion multiplied by the sector angle. According to one embodiment, the invention provides a liquefied gas storage facility comprising: a load-bearing structure having an internal space delimited by a bottom load-bearing wall and a vertical load-bearing wall, a contour of said bottom load-bearing wall having the shape of an N-sided regular polygon, N being an integer greater than or equal to 4,said vertical load-bearing wall being made up of N vertical load-bearing panels and forming a polygonal cylindrical surface having said regular polygon as its directrix, where each of the N sides of the polygon corresponds to an intersection between the bottom load-bearing wall and one of said vertical load-bearing panels;and a sealed tank installed in the internal space of the load-bearing structure, the sealed tank comprising a bottom wall placed on the bottom load-bearing wall and a vertical wall placed on the vertical load-bearing wall,said vertical wall being made up of N vertical panels, each vertical panel of the vertical wall being fixed to one of the N vertical load-bearing panels,said bottom wall comprising a plurality of angular sectors that are the image of one another through rotation by a predetermined angle about a vertical axis, the predetermined angle being equal to k·360°/N, where k is a positive integer less than or equal to half of N, each angular sector of the bottom wall being connected to at least k of the N vertical panels of the vertical wall,the sealed tank comprising a corrugated sealing membrane intended to be in contact with a liquefied gas,wherein the corrugated sealing membrane of each angular sector of the bottom wall