Aluminum Alloy Plates for Moss LNG Tank

 Non-renewable resources such as oil and natural gas will become more and more precious. The transportation method of natural gas mainly depends on the length of the transportation distance. Under normal circumstances, short-distance liquefied natural gas transportation of less than 1000 km is transported by pressurized pipelines, and Moss LNG tank ships are used for the transport of more than 3000 km.

The recently developed LNG carrier can increase the capacity by more than 4 to 10 times on the basis of traditional carriers. LNG carriers need to first load natural gas in liquid form obtained by liquefying natural gas at a temperature below minus 162 ℃ into the storage tank for transportation.

The most important thing to manufacture an LNG carrier is the choice of the raw material of LNG storage tanks and ships. There are some basic requirements:

1. In the working temperature range, the expansion coefficient of the cabin material should be small, and with temperature changes, the expansion coefficient changes little. The aluminium alloy plate for Moss LNG tank meets such requirements.

2. The raw material should have a certain low temperature impact toughness value (Cv), or low temperature plastic brittle turning point temperature. In actual use, the requirements for the Cv value are getting higher and higher.

3. It must have good adaptability to impact load and cyclic load, and be able to withstand impact and fatigue.

4. At low temperatures, it should have higher strength and good elongation plasticity.

5. In addition to the above requirements for materials, there are also special requirements for the formability and welding performance of the materials.

At present the materials that can be used for LNG storage tanks or transport ships are Ni36 Invar alloy, Ni9% steel, and aluminum alloys such as aluminum alloy 5083, 5183, and 5383. Ni36 Invar alloy and Ni9% steel have excellent performance, but they are not suitable for large-scale use due to their high price and high density. Aluminum alloy is the best material for manufacturing storage cabins of LNG shipsdue to its good low-temperature properties.

As for the the choice of the aluminum alloys, Haomei Aluminum, a big aluminium tanker plate manufacturer, has rich alloys for the LNG tank and LNG ship manufacturer to choose from.

Original Source:https://www.aluminumtankerplate.com/a/aluminum-alloy-plates-for-moss-lng-tank.html