Recently, Georgetown, China’s first independently designed and built 180,000-cubic-meter liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier, was successfully delivered. With an overall length of 298.8 meters and a molded breadth of 48 meters, the vessel is equipped with a dual-fuel low-speed propulsion system and offers advantages such as a low boil-off rate and strong environmental performance. It is currently the largest LNG carrier ever completed in China, marking a major breakthrough in the country’s construction of large-scale clean-energy vessels.

An LNG carrier is a specialized vessel designed to transport liquefied natural gas at an ultra-low temperature of -163°C. Due to the extremely high level of difficulty involved in its design and construction, this type of vessel is known as the “crown jewel of the shipbuilding industry.” Only a small number of shipyards worldwide have mastered the core capabilities required for its construction. The design and manufacturing of LNG carriers are a concentrated reflection of a country’s overall industrial strength in high-end shipbuilding.

The successful completion of Georgetown embodies the wisdom and dedication of the faculty, students, and alumni of Harbin Engineering University. From talent cultivation and technical research to production support, members of HEU provided key theoretical and technical solutions in areas such as overall ship design, hydrodynamic performance optimization, and cryogenic structural safety, helping ensure that the vessel met its performance targets. During the production and construction stage, they also offered technical guidance and process support for critical aspects including the liquid cargo containment system, containment structure construction, and dual-fuel power system integration, effectively safeguarding construction quality and progress and laying a solid foundation for this major national engineering achievement.

A key challenge in LNG carrier construction lies in the installation of the membrane tank containment system, in which the welding and forming precision control of stainless-steel corrugated plates is a core bottleneck for localization. Professor Xue Yanzhuo, Professor Zhu Haitao, Professor Miao Yugang, Associate Professor Yao Jingzheng, and other members of the “Xinghai” Academic Team for Ship and Ocean Engineering Design and Manufacturing at the College of Shipbuilding Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, worked with industry partners to successfully develop a high-precision prediction model for welding deformation in corrugated plates. They also established an intelligent precision-control forecasting system, effectively overcoming technical challenges in membrane tank construction and providing strong support for the technological iteration and localization of high-end LNG carriers.

Original Link: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/cOwKbUoJQfsd8WWWZYX0Rg