RT Journal Article
T1 Numerical simulation of natural convection and boil-off in a small size pressurized LNG storage tank
A1 Ferrín González, José Luis
A1 Pérez Pérez, Luis Javier
K1 Numerical simulation
K1 LNG
K1 Boil-off
K1 Natural convection
K1 Conjugate heat transfer
AB A numerical simulation of the flow of LNG stored in a small-sized cylindrical tank is presented. The main scope of this work is to characterize the heat ingress to the tank as well as the boil-off rate, depending on the filling level and the insulation layer thickness. The tank is assumed to be in a state of inactivity, such that the fluid phases are initially quiescent and are not released to the exterior. The proposed mathematical model consists of a conjugate heat transfer problem coupled with the SST  turbulence model for the fluid phases. The free surface separating liquid and vapor in the tank is tracked using the Volume of Fluid method (VOF). The model is solved using the software ANSYS Fluent. It is shown that the filling level of the tank substantially influences the boiling rate and the degree of stratification, as well as the flow structures generated by free convection. The relation among the insulation thickness and total heat leak is established, showing that the obtained increased heat ingress due to lower insulation thickness values leads to a rise in pressurization and boil-off rates.
PB Elsevier
SN 0098-1354
YR 2020
FD 2020-07-12
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10347/38191
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10347/38191
LA eng
NO Ferrín, & Pérez-Pérez. (2020). Numerical simulation of natural convection and boil-off in a small size pressurized LNG storage tank. Computers and Chemical Engineering, 138. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.COMPCHEMENG.2020.106840
NO This work was partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities through the Plan Nacional de I+D+i under grants MTM2015-68275-R and MTM2017-86459-R, the grant BES-2016-077228 and by FEDER and Xunta de Galicia funds under grant GRC GI-1563 ED431C 2017/60. The authors also thank the Energylab Technology Center, with whom they collaborated during the initial stages of this work.
DS Minerva
RD 26 abr 2026