• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.733-742
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• 2010

In this study, optimization was performed to improve the conventional liquefaction process of offshore plants, such as a LNG-FPSO(Liquefied Natural Gas-Floating, Production, Storage, and Offloading unit) by maximizing the energy efficiency of the process. The major equipments of the liquefaction process are compressors, expanders, and heat exchangers. These are connected by stream which has some thermodynamic properties, such as the temperature, pressure, enthalpy or specific volume, and entropy. For this, a process design problem for the liquefaction process of offshore plants was mathematically formulated as an optimization problem. The minimization of the total energy requirement of the liquefaction process was used as an objective function. Governing equations and other equations derived from thermodynamic laws acted as constraints. To solve this problem, the sequential quadratic programming(SQP) method was used. To evaluate the proposed method in this study, it was applied to the natural gas liquefaction process of the LNG-FPSO. The result showed that the proposed method could present the improved liquefaction process minimizing the total energy requirement as compared to conventional process.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.491-500
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• 2022

It has been noted that an accurate estimation of wind loads on offshore structures such as an FLNG (Liquefied Natural Gas Floating P roduction Storage Offloading Units, LNG FPSOs) with a large topside plays an important role in the safety design of hull and mooring system. Therefore, the present study aims to develop a computational model for estimating the wind load acting on an FLNG. In particular, it is the sequel to the previous research by the author. The numerical computation model in the present study was modified based on the previous research. Numerical analysis for estimating wind loads was performed in two conditions for an interval of wind direction (α), 15° over the range of 0° to 360°. One condition is uniform wind speed and the other is the NPD model reflecting the wind speed profile. At first, the effect of sand-grain roughness on the speed profile of the NPD model was studied. Based on the developed NPD model, mesh convergence tests were carried out for 3 wind headings, i.e. head, quartering, and beam. Finally, wind loads on 6-degrees of freedom were numerically estimated and compared by two boundary conditions, uniform speed, and the NPD model. In the present study, a commercial RANS-based viscous solver, STAR-CCM+ (ver. 17.02) was adopted. In summary, wind loads in surge and yaw from the wind speed profile boundary condition were increased by 20.35% and 34.27% at most. Particularly, the interval mean of sway (45° < α <135°, 225° < α < 315°) and roll (60° < α < 135°, 225° < α < 270°) increased by 15.60% and 10.89% against the uniform wind speed (10m/s) boundary condition.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.95-105
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• 2018

An FLNG (floating liquefied natural gas) or LNG FPSO (floating production, storage and offloading) unit is a notable offshore unit with the increasing demand for LNG. The liquefaction process on an FLNG unit is the most important process because it determines the economic feasibility, but would be a hazard source because of the large quantity of hydrocarbons. While a high efficiency process such as C3MR has been preferred for onshore liquefaction processes, a relatively simple process such as the SMR (single mixed refrigerant) or DMR (dual mixed refrigerant) liquefaction process has been selected for offshore units because they require a more compact size, lighter weight, and higher safety due to their space limitation for facilities and long distance from shore. It is known that an SMR has the advantages of a simple configuration, small footprint, and lower risk. However, with an increased production rate, the inherent safety of SMR needs to be evaluated because of its small train capacity. In this study, the potential explosion risks of the SMR and DMR liquefaction processes were evaluated at the conceptual design stage. The results showed that an SMR has a lower overpressure than a DMR at the same frequency, only with a small production capacity of 0.9 MTPA. With increased capacity, the overpressure of the SMR was higher than that of the DMR. The increased number of trains increased the frequency in spite of the small amount of equipment per train. This showed that the inherent risk of an SMR is not always lower than that of a DMR, and an additional risk management strategy is recommended when an SMR is selected as the concept for an FLNG liquefaction process compared to the DMR liquefaction process.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.22 no.7
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• pp.900-905
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• 2016

The field of power system harmonics has been receiving a great deal of attention recently. This is primarily due to the fact that non-linear (or harmonic-producing) loads comprise an ever-increasing portion of what is handled at a typical industrial plant. The incidence rate of harmonic-related problems is low, but awareness of harmonic issues can still help increase offshore power plant system reliability. On the rare occasion that harmonics become a problem, this is either due to the magnitude of harmonics produced or power system resonance. This harmonic study used an electrical configuration for the offloading scenario of a Floating LNG (FLNG) unit, considering power load. This electrical network configuration is visible in the electrical network load flow study part of the project. This study has been carried out to evaluate the performance of an electric power system, focusing on the harmonic efficiency of an electrically driven motor system to ensure offshore plant safety. In addition, the design part of this study analyzed the electric power system of an FLNG unit to improve the safety of operation and maintenance.