Proceedings of the Twenty-first (2011) International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference Maui, Hawaii, USA, June 19-24,

2011 Copyright 2011 by the International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers (ISOPE) ISBN 978-1-880653-96-8 (Set); ISSN 1098-6189 (Set); www.isope.org

Effect of Internal Structure of VLCCs Cargo Hold on Sloshing

Soo Sung Jeon, Jun Hyung Jung, Yoon Sik Hwang, Min Cheol Ryu, Myung Jae Song, Yong Soo Kim
Fluid Dynamics R&D Group, Ship & Ocean R&D Institute, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Eng. Co. Ltd., Geoje-shi, Gyeongnam, Korea

ABSTRACT
This paper presents an experimental investigation into effect of internal structure of VLCCs cargo hold on sloshing loads. In ordinary double hull VLCC, one row of cross-tie is arranged in the center tanks to increase transverse strength. However, installation of cross-tie structure is a time-consuming work and require dangerous jobs of workers at shipyard. Also it makes some problems such as crack due to the loads and stress concentration during the partial filled voyage of VLCC. DSME has developed a new type of mid ship section of VLCC to increase productivity and structural integrity. The cross-tie in the center tanks is removed and the depth of vertical web and stringer is increased in the developed design. The experimental comparisons of the sloshing pressures between two designs are carried out to validate developed mid ship section of VLCC. Simplified scaled model with removal cross-tie is excited by using regular and irregular motions. It is concluded that the tendency to increase the sloshing pressure in the cross-tieless tank is acceptable level. KEY WORDS: VLCC, Internal member, Cross-tie, Impact pressure, Sloshing

operation of vessel in waves, several regular wave conditions for experiment were selected based on natural periods. Model tests for irregular motions were also carried out for the statistical analysis. The experiments were carried out for three filling levels. These experimental conditions do not seem to exist in real operation of VLCC. However, this approach is enough to compare relative sloshing loads between cross-tie model and cross-tieless model.

Fig. 1 Cross-tie in VLCC Cargo Tank

EXPERIMENTAL SET UP
The 6-DOF sloshing motion platform was used for model tests. Fig. 2 shows the 6-DOF motion platform at Pusan National University (PNU), Korea. The facility is consisted of a machinery, motion control unit, and related software. The machinery unit is consisted of an actuator body, actuator/bracket joints, upper and lower frame, and AC servo motor and driver. The facility can test within the maximum capacity of 4 tons. The total motor power to operate this facility reaches up to 90kW. Model tanks are referred to VLCC Cargo tank and the scale is 1/50. The model is made of plexi-glass and the thickness of the model wall is 40mm. Fig. 3 shows the dimensions of model tank having 1.026m 0.456m 0.58m(L B D). As shown in this figure, simple internal members and cross-ties were installed in the model tank. In order to measure sloshing pressures, 80 pressure sensors are installed like Fig.4. In Fig. 4, the numbers in green boxes are cluster IDs and the numbers in red boxes show ID of each sensor. The pressure sensors are made by Kistler Instrument Corporation. The 211B5 model whose diameter of the measuring surface is 5.5mm was used. Impact pressures were measured with a sampling frequency of 20.0 kHz.

INTRODUCTION
In VLCC cargo hold, there are several internal structures including cross-tie in order to prevent damage on inner wall due to the various loads and stresses. In this case, a few cracks in welding joints of face and bracket on cross-tie may be appeared due to internal flow movements. The sloshing phenomenon by crude oil in the cargo tank during the operation time of VLCC is considered as one of reason of cracks. Sometimes higher sloshing loads are measured under partial filling conditions. In the case of VLCC, the life time probability to be exposed at partial fillings is small and crude oil has large viscosity. So, the sloshing phenomenon may not be the exact reason of cross-ties damage. However, cross-tie has another risk. Fig.1 shows cross-tie in conventional VLCC cargo tank. As shown in this figure, the cross-tie structure is difficult to be constructed and require dangerous jobs of workers at shipyard. For theses reasons, DSME developed a crosstieless cargo tank. To ensure the safety of cargo hold, the evaluation of cross-ties effect on sloshing loads was required. In order to evaluate the effect of the cross-tie on sloshing loads during

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