HK1140001B - Cylindrical structure composed of rectangular elements - Google Patents

Description

Cylindrical structure composed of rectangular members

Technical Field

The invention relates to a cylindrical structure, the vertical walls and bottom wall of which comprise a plurality of adjacent rectangular elements. In particular, the present invention relates to a sealed and insulated container.

Background

Document FR1457617 describes a surface container for storing liquefied natural gas. The container comprises a sealing membrane consisting of a corrugated metal sheet. In one embodiment, the circular bottom wall is covered by a plurality of rectangular plates distributed in symmetrical sectors and by connecting plates between the sectors. This arrangement allows a large portion of the area of the bottom wall to be covered by the rectangular plate. However, since the bottom wall is circular, a special non-rectangular plate must be used between the straight edge of the rectangular plate and the outer periphery of the bottom wall. Thus increasing the number of different panels required to cover the entire bottom wall.

Document FR2739675 describes a container whose bottom wall is covered by a plurality of corrugated sheets. The corrugated plates have radial edges. The cutting of these panels is therefore more complicated than in the case of rectangular panels and may cause a large amount of scrap, which is particularly undesirable when the panels are manufactured from costly materials. Furthermore, to cover the entire bottom wall, different types of plates with radial edges are necessary.

Document FR2398961 describes a container whose bottom wall is covered by a plurality of rectangular strakes which are perfectly parallel to each other. This can cause difficulty in joining where the bottom wall and vertical wall of the container meet. In addition, the cutting of strakes results in a large amount of scrap.

Disclosure of Invention

The problem underlying the present invention is to propose a cylindrical structure or a container which does not have at least some of the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art and which, in particular, can be realized with a reduced number of component shapes.

The solution of the invention consists in a cylindrical structure comprising a vertical wall and a bottom wall having a plurality of sectors which are mirror images of each other by rotation, each sector comprising a plurality of adjacent rectangular elements, characterized in that the bottom wall has the shape of a regular polygon, each side of the polygon corresponding to one of said sectors, the edges of the rectangular elements of a sector being respectively perpendicular and parallel to the sides of the polygon corresponding to said sector.

Due to the above features, a large part of the bottom wall may be composed of a rectangular member. Furthermore, the rectangular member of the bottom wall may extend all the way to the straight edge of the bottom wall, and in this case, no special member is required between the rectangular member and the straight edge. The rectangular member of the bottom wall may also extend with a small clearance from the straight sides of the bottom wall and with its edges parallel to the straight sides. In this case, no special member is required between the rectangular member and the side. The rectangular member of the bottom wall may also extend with a small clearance from the straight edge of the bottom wall and with its edge parallel to the straight edge. In this case, the bottom wall can be conveniently supplemented with rectilinear elements, for example angles, extending along the edges of the bottom wall. In both cases only a limited number of different components are required to constitute the entire bottom wall.

Preferably, said bottom wall comprises a plurality of identical polygonal connecting members connecting two adjacent sectors.

This reduces the number of different components required. The connecting member may be, for example, a quadrilateral or an octagon.

Advantageously, said vertical wall comprises a plurality of adjacent rectangular elements, the rectangular elements of said vertical wall being identical to the rectangular elements of the bottom wall.

In this case, the number of different components required to form the bottom wall and the vertical wall is limited.

The invention also proposes a sealed and insulated container comprising a sealing barrier and an insulating barrier, characterized in that it comprises a cylindrical structure according to the invention described above.

In this case, the rectangular member may be a sealing baffle and/or a heat insulating baffle member. The rectangular member includes, for example, a corrugated plate forming a sealing barrier, or a metal strake having raised edges forming a sealing barrier. It is also contemplated that the rectangular member comprises panels of thermally insulating material to form the insulating panels.

Preferably, said bottom wall comprises a central member to which the most central rectangular member of each sector is connected.

According to a particular embodiment, the container comprises a rectilinear angular element, placed along the edge of said bottom wall, said angular element comprising a horizontal strip connected to the rectangular element of a sector furthest from the centre, and a vertical strip connected to the rectangular element of the vertical wall.

Such an angle facilitates the connection of the component of the bottom wall with the component of the vertical wall.

Drawings

The invention will be better understood and other objects, details, characteristics and advantages thereof will become more apparent in the course of the following description of several non-limiting specific embodiments thereof; the description will proceed with reference being made to the accompanying drawings, in which:

figure 1 is a top view of a sector of a container and connecting members according to an embodiment of the invention,

figure 2 is a top view of a connecting member of the container of figure 1,

FIG. 3 is a top view of a rectangular element of the container of FIG. 1,

figure 4 is a perspective view of the connecting member of figure 2,

FIG. 5 is a partial top view of a bottom wall of a container according to another embodiment of the invention,

figures 6 and 7 are partial perspective views of the container of figure 1, with a connecting member according to a variant embodiment,

figure 8 shows two connecting members according to a second variant of the invention.

Detailed Description

In fig. 6 and 7, the sealing membrane of a surface vessel 1 for storing Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is shown. The container 1 also comprises a concrete support structure and an insulating barrier (not shown) between the sealing membrane and the support structure.

The sealing membrane of the container 1 has a cylindrical configuration comprising a bottom wall 2 and a vertical wall 3. The bottom wall 2 has the shape of a regular polygon, with twenty sides 6 in the example of fig. 6 and 7. However, the present invention is also directed to other types of polygons, particularly polygons of five or more sides.

The bottom wall 2 has a plurality of sectors 4, each sector corresponding to one of the edges 6. The sectors 4 are mirror images of each other by rotation. The vertical wall 3 is formed by a plurality of vertical walls 5, each corresponding to one of the edges 6.

The bottom wall 2 and the vertical wall 3 are formed by a plurality of metal plates which are connected by welding and are corrugated to allow the metal plates to contract when the temperature varies. The fixing and welding of the metal plates, and the forming of the corrugations, may be performed according to techniques known in the art of storage or transport containers for LNG.

On the bottom wall 2, the metal plate comprises a rectangular plate 8 of length L and width L, shown in fig. 3, and a connecting plate 9 of symmetrical quadrilateral shape, shown in fig. 2, having two sides of length L and two sides of length L/2.

Figure 1 shows how the rectangular plate 8 is arranged to cover one sector 4 of the bottom wall 2. A plurality of rectangular plates 8 are arranged in three rows with their width parallel to the edge 6. The rectangular plates 8 are staggered from row to row and decrease one plate 8 at a time as one approaches the center. Of course, there may be more or less than three rows, depending on the dimensions of the bottom wall 2 and the rectangular plate 8. For example, there are ten rows in the embodiment of fig. 7.

Due to the arrangement of the rectangular plates 8 described above, the free space between one plate 8 at the end of a certain row of a first sector and one plate 8 at the end of the corresponding row of a second adjacent sector always has the shape of an identical symmetrical quadrilateral. All these identically shaped voids can be filled with a plurality of webs 9.

Thus, as in the example shown in fig. 1, the width of the outermost rectangular plate 8 coincides with the edge 6, and the bottom wall 2 may be entirely formed by a plurality of identical rectangular plates 8, a plurality of identical connecting plates 9 and a central piece 13. As shown in fig. 7, the central member may be constituted by a connecting plate 9. The bottom wall 2 is thus formed by two or at most three different plates.

In one embodiment, not shown, the short sides of the outermost rectangular plates 8 do not coincide with the edges 6, but the spacing is not large, for example 10 cm. A rectilinear angle piece with an L-shaped cross section is provided along the edge 6. The angle comprises a transverse web which is connected by its width to the rectangular plate 8 furthest from the centre. The angle also includes a vertical slat connected to the vertical wall panel. The angle is only one example of a connection between the bottom wall 2 and the vertical wall 3. Such connection may be achieved according to other techniques, for example in a similar manner to connection rings used in the field of LNG transport containers. Regardless of the technique chosen, this connection is relatively simple and requires only a limited number of parts, since the connection between two mutually perpendicular walls is achieved, which walls are mainly constituted by rectangular plates with edges parallel and perpendicular to the intersecting edges.

The vertical wall 3 is formed of a rectangular metal plate. In one embodiment, the same rectangular plate 8 as the bottom wall 2 is used, which limits the number of types of plates required. At the edge 6, the longitudinal corrugations 7 of the bottom wall 2 can be connected to corresponding longitudinal corrugations 7 of the vertical wall 3, which can limit the stresses generated by thermal shrinkage.

As mentioned above, the sheet has corrugations which allow it to contract when subjected to temperature changes. More precisely, the rectangular plate 8 has two longitudinal corrugations 7 and a plurality of transverse corrugations 10. The longitudinal corrugation 7 is spaced from the long side by a distance a, and the distance between the two is 2 a. As can be seen in particular in fig. 1, the corrugations 7 and 10 of the rectangular plate 8 are connected to each other. The connecting plate 9 also has corrugations which connect with the corrugations of adjacent rectangular plates 8. In the example of fig. 4, the connecting plate 9 comprises end corrugations 11 connected to the longitudinal corrugations 7 of adjacent rectangular plates 8, and connecting corrugations 12 connected to the transverse corrugations 10 of adjacent rectangular plates 8. Other corrugation arrangements are also contemplated on the web 9, an example of which is shown in fig. 6.

Fig. 5 shows a different arrangement of the plates of the bottom wall 2. In this embodiment, two rectangular plates 8 are reduced at each connecting plate 9 as it approaches the center. In this embodiment, instead of rectangular plates 8 of the same length L corresponding to the length of a side of the connecting plate 9, rectangular plates 8' of different lengths may be used, for example, extending in length from the side 6 of the bottom wall to the short side of one connecting plate. These rectangular plates 8' may be, for example, raised-edge strakes, the manufacture of which and the fixing to a welded support to LNG storage or transport vessels are known in the art. Such strakes may be implemented in a low expansion coefficient material such as Invar and are not corrugated.

The insulating barrier of the container 1 is not shown. It may be constructed of a plurality of insulation panels. In one embodiment the plates of the bottom wall comprise rectangular plates and connecting plates, arranged in a similar manner to the rectangular plates 8 and the connecting plates 9, respectively.

The above describes a quadrangular web 9, as can be seen in fig. 1 and 5, the two webs 9 only meeting at their respective vertices. In another embodiment shown in fig. 8, the web 9 'is shaped as a quadrilateral with truncated vertices, forming a hexagon, and two adjacent webs 9' meet at two edges.

The invention is not limited to containers. Instead, it relates to all cylindrical structures comprising a polygonal bottom wall consisting of rectangular elements distributed in sectors and connecting elements between the sectors.

While the invention has been described in connection with several specific embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not so limited, but includes all equivalent techniques of the described methods and combinations thereof, if they fall within the scope of the invention.

Claims (8)

1. Sealed and/or insulated container (1) comprising a sealing baffle and/or an insulating baffle, said sealing baffle and/or said insulating baffle having a cylindrical shape and comprising a vertical wall (3) and a bottom wall (2), said vertical wall being formed by a plurality of vertical walls (5), said bottom wall having a plurality of sectors (4) which form mirror images of each other by rotation, each sector comprising a plurality of adjacent rectangular elements (8), characterized in that said bottom wall has the shape of a regular polygon, each side (6) of which corresponds to one of said sectors and to one of said vertical walls, the edges of the rectangular elements of a sector being respectively perpendicular and parallel to the sides of the polygon corresponding to said sector.

2. Container according to claim 1, wherein the bottom wall comprises a plurality of identical polygonal connecting pieces (9, 9') connecting the rectangular pieces of two adjacent sectors.

3. Container according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the vertical wall comprises a plurality of adjacent rectangular elements, the rectangular elements of the vertical wall being identical to the rectangular elements (8) of the bottom wall.

4. A container according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the rectangular member comprises a corrugated sheet (8, 9, 9', 13) forming a sealing barrier.

5. A container according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the rectangular member comprises a raised-edge metal strake (8') forming a sealing barrier.

6. A container according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the rectangular element comprises a panel of thermally insulating material forming a thermally insulating barrier.

7. A container according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the bottom wall comprises a central member (13) to which the centremost rectangular element of each sector is connected.

8. A container according to claim 1 or 2, comprising a rectilinear angular member, arranged along one edge of said bottom wall, said angular member comprising a horizontal strip connected to the rectangular member of a sector furthest from the centre and a vertical strip connected to the rectangular member of the vertical wall.