Holistic Study of Liquefied Natural Gas Carrier Systems

Natural gas, one of the fossil fuels, has shown promising growth due to its price and lower pollutant emissions compared to other fossil fuels. One option for transporting natural gas is the use of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) carriers. An LNG carrier is one of the most expensive, complex and potentially hazardous cargo carriers that is operating across the world's oceans due to its cargo. The aim of this paper is to identify the relationship of seven main components involved in constructing an LNG carrier. It can be done through an understanding of the principals involved in the LNG carrier design process. Understanding each component and the inter-component relationships requires detailed investigation into the behaviour of components relative to any changes in the multitude of variables. The main challenge is to consider and adapt all of the possible constraints within each component. Here, each component is required to communicate with each other in one language. As a result a comprehensive ‘system of systems’ of an LNG carrier relationship will be developed to be used as a tool to construct a new LNG carrier efficiently.