THREE‐DIMENSIONAL SIMULATION OF THE HEAT TRANSFER AND TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION IN A LIQUID GAS TANK

By modelling the unsteady heat transfer in liquid gas tanks, the temperature distribution in the tank as well as the heat flux reaching the liquid gas can be predicted. Knowledge of the temperature distribution and heat flux can be used to predict evaporation losses from the tank. By minimizing the evaporation losses, the thermal design of a gas tank can be optimized. This paper presents a finite difference simulation of the unsteady three‐dimensional heat transfer in gas tanks and an optimized configuration. The numerical procedure accounts for radiation from the sun as well as radiative and convective heat transfer with the environment. A non‐uniform grid is used because the tank consists of several different materials of varying dimensions and properties. Geometrical effects such as variations in the thickness of the insulation material and the diameter and height of the tanks are also studied in an attempt to optimize the design configuration.