Behaviour of a birch plywood under various experimental conditions

¹ Univ. Bretagne-Sud, EA 4250, LIMATB, 56100 Lorient, France
² Ecoles Militaires de Saint- Cyr Coëtquidan, Laboratoire de Mécanique et Matériaux, 56381 Guer, France
³ GTT, Gaztransport et Technigaz, 78470 Saint Rémy-Lès-Chevreuses, France

^a Corresponding author: vincent.grolleau@univ-ubs.fr

Published online: 7 September 2015

Abstract

Liquid Natural Gaz -LNG- carriers must provide cryogenic reliability and safety for at least 40 years. Most of the insulation systems belong to the so-called membrane type, in which the “insulation complex” is composed of a metal membrane as a barrier, a plywood panel, insulation foam and a plywood panel glued to the inner hull. During construction and exploitation at cryogenic temperature, an impact of the membrane may occur and could lead to a LNG leakage. In order to evaluate this risk, and the role of the plywood in the perforation process of the membrane, a series of original impact tests are carried out at room and cryogenic temperatures on metal-plywood samples thanks to a specially designed catapult. In order to obtain a reliable numerical simulation of the impact, a series of impact and out of plane compression tests at room and cryogenic temperatures are carried out. Thanks to a design experiment, we identified the influence of the moisture content, from 2% up to 30%, and of the temperature, from − 173 ^∘C up to +20 ^∘C, on the strain rate sensitivity of the plywood.