Fatigue Analysis of LNG Cargo Containment System Connections in Membrane LNG Carrier

As an LNG carrier preserves and transports liquefied natural gas under minus $163^{\circ}C$, the cargo tank has to have sufficient hull strength against not only the wave loads but also against loads caused by loading and unloading and thermal expansion to keep the LNG safely. The main insulation types for a CCS are No.96 and Mark III from GTT for the membrane LNG carrier. Particularly, the invar membrane plate in No.96 is very thin and its connections could experience high local stresses owing to such dynamic loads. Therefore, it should be verified whether those connections have sufficient fatigue lives for the purpose of operation and maintenance. This research aims at performing fatigue analysis with 0.1 fatigue damage criteria for 40 years of design life to support new membrane CCS development using proper S-N curves and the associated finite element modeling technique for each connection and then propose a reasonable design methodology.