Angle Bracket Sealing Structure for Cryogenic Insulated Tank Corners
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing sealed and thermally insulating tanks for low-temperature liquids face challenges in managing thermal deformations and stresses on membranes during loading and transportation, which can impair sealing and put excessive shear stresses on insulating barriers.
Innovation Solution
The design incorporates an angle bracket system with flanges and tabs anchored directly to the bearing walls, using anchor rods to transmit tensile loads and connect sealed membranes, thereby reducing stress on the insulating barriers and eliminating the need for additional fixation methods like riveting, while maintaining rigidity and allowing for easier assembly.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If anchor strips are fixed to insulating edging blocks during prefabrication and aligned during tank fabrication, then the sealed membranes can be anchored on the bearing structure, but high shear stresses are applied to the insulating barriers and membrane elements
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the anchoring function from the insulating barrier system by introducing separate anchor rods that connect angle brackets directly to the bearing structure. This separates the tensile load-bearing function (handled by anchor rods) from the insulating function (handled by insulating barriers), eliminating shear stress on the insulating barriers while maintaining sealing integrity through the angle brackets and anchor strips.
Solution Approach 2:
The angle bracket acts as an intermediary element between the sealed membrane and the bearing structure. It provides a rigid connection point that distributes tensile forces to multiple anchor rods, which then transmit these forces directly to the bearing structure without involving the insulating barriers in load transmission.
2Reliability
If composite beams fixed to insulating box structures are used to connect sealed membranes to couplers, then the membranes can be anchored on the bearing structure, but the insulating barriers are subjected to high shear stresses
Solution Approach 1:
The invention removes the load-bearing function from the insulating box structures by introducing angle brackets with flanges that rest on the insulating barriers without transferring shear forces. The anchor rods carry all tensile loads directly to the bearing structure, extracting the problematic shear stress interaction from the insulating barriers while maintaining reliable membrane anchoring.
3Strength
If additional fixation methods like riveting are used to secure angle brackets to insulating edging blocks, then the structure gains rigidity, but the prefabrication process becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The angle bracket system achieves structural rigidity through its own geometry and the tensile forces in the anchor rods, without requiring additional fixation methods like riveting to the insulating edging blocks. The flanges of the angle bracket rest on the insulating barriers, and the anchor rods provide the necessary mechanical connection to the bearing structure, making the system self-sufficient and simplifying prefabrication.
Data Source
AI summary
Sealed and thermally insulating tank incorporated into a polyhedral bearing structure, a first bearing wall and a second bearing wall forming an edge corner, the tank having a first tank wall, a thermally insulating barrier and a sealed membrane, the tank further has an angle bracket with a first flange and a second flange in such a way that the angle bracket connects in a sealed manner. The sealed membrane of the first tank wall and the sealed membrane of the second tank wall in line with the edge corner, in which the angle bracket has a pair of first tabs and a pair of second tabs, the tank has a pair of first anchor rods coupled to a respective first tab and a pair of second anchor rods coupled to a respective second tab in such a way as to transmit a tensile load between the angle bracket.