Full and Large Scale Wave Impact Tests for a Better Understanding of Sloshing: Results of the Sloshel Project

This paper outlines the progress made within the Sloshel User Group in the analysis of unidirectional breaking wave impacts on transverse walls in flume tanks at full (1:1) and large (1:6) scales. These tests, carried out during the Sloshel project, were intended to help understanding the physics of sloshing impacts in tanks of LNG carriers and Floating LNG terminals (FLNGs). Two test campaigns were performed at full scale involving respectively the NO96 and the MarkIII containment systems. The latter was performed recently (April 2010) and the analysis is in progress. This paper describes the physical phenomena observed during the impacts on the MarkIII containment system. This helps understanding the difficulties inherent to the scaling of sloshing pressures measured during model tests. The paper also shows how important local peak pressures are for the structural response of the MarkIII system (same kind of conclusion had already been demonstrated for NO96 in Brosset, Mravak, Kaminski, Collins and Finnigan, 2009). According to very preliminary analysis, reduction of impact pressures due to hydro-elasticity with the MarkIII containment system seems to be moderated if real.