Impact failure analysis of corrugated steel plate in LNG containment cargo system

Abstract In the present study, the failure characteristics of the primary barrier of a GTT Mark-III type liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo containment system (CCS) under cyclic impact loads were analyzed using a comprehensive failure model. The three types of failure modes that mainly occur in a thin-walled structure, namely, localized necking, ductile failure, and shear failure, were considered to evaluate the different failure phenomena for large and small corrugations of the primary barrier consisting of 304 L stainless steel. To validate the numerical analysis approach, a series of impact tests were conducted, and the reaction force history along with the permanently deformed configuration of the thin-walled structure was compared to the simulation results of structural impact failure. Through the comparative study, it was confirmed that the simulation outcomes were in good agreement with the experimental results. The proposed failure analysis model was used to quantitatively predict the structural impact failure of the primary barrier under severe impact (or sloshing) loads, and the estimated structural life was proposed based on the failure index concept.