One of the accidents postulated in full-containment storage tanks for liquefied natural gas is the major leak, whereby the liquid occupies the annular space between the cryogenic inner tank and the prestressed outer tank. As a result, the inner surface of the concrete cools to -160 ºC. The tank must retain its integrity and its capacity to contain the gas.
The necessary thermo-mechanical analyses are strongly non-linear and must allow for the cracking of the concrete over most of the thickness of the wall. Principia has carried out those analyses for more than a dozen tanks.
