Other Classes:
220/901, 220/560.100, 220/565, 52/273, 220/560.120
Claims:
What is claimed is
1. A heat-insulated liquid storage tank comprising a bottom, a cylindrical one-piece outer shell, a cylindrical one-piece inner shell spaced therefrom, a roof for said outer shell, a roof for said inner shell and a series of arcuate one-piece segments disposed between said inner shell and said outer shell to form a cylindrical intermediate wall, the edge of each of said segments being provided with vertically extending integral flanges, adjacent flanges of each segment being spaced from each other, an expansable joint connecting adjacent flanges to permit expansion and contraction of said intermediate wall, means for connecting the intermediate wall to the inner surface of the outer shell and disposed in the space between said intermediate wall and said outer shell to provide support for said intermediate wall, and insulating material disposed in the space between said intermediate shell and said outer wall.
2. A heat-insulated liquid storage tank as defined in claim 1 wherein the space between adjacent flanges is packed with a heat insulating elastic material.
Description:
The present invention relates to a device for holding heat insulating materials for a double-shell low-temperature liquid storage tank.
The same inventor proposed a device for holding heat insulating materials for a double-shell low-temperature liquid storage tank of the type in which an intermediate wall consisting of a plurality of corrugated metal segments is installed between the outer and inner shells of the storage tank and joined to the outer shell so that the granular heat insulating materials packed into the space between the intermediate wall and the outer shell may be held undisturbed regardless of the deformation of the inner shell due to a temperature change. However, the proposed device has some defects. First of all, it takes a relatively long time to fabricate the corrugated metal segments and to join them to the outer shell. Furthermore, the construction is complex and the cost is expensive. Moreover, the replacement of damages corrugated metal segments is not simple.
One of the objects of the present invention is therefore to provide an improvement of a device for holding heat insulating materials for a double-shell low-temperature liquid storage tank.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a device for holding heat insulating materials for a double-shell low-temperature liquid storage tank, which device can hold the granular heat insulating materials packed in the space between the space between the outer shell and the intermediate wall undisturbed regardless of the deformation due to a temperature change of the inner shell.
A further object of the present invention is to provice a device for holding the heat insulating materials for a double-shell low-temperature liquid storage tank, which device is extremely simple in construction and inexpensive in cost.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a device for holding the heat insulating materials for a double-shell low-temperature liquid storage tank, which device may be manufactured, installed and repaired in a very simple manner.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description of one preferred embodiment thereof taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing in which:
FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional view of a supporting device for a double-shell low-temperature liquid storage tank;
FIG. 2 is a cross sectional view thereof taken along the line II--II of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 (A) is a detailed view, on enlarged scale, of a part indicated by a circle III in FIG. 2;
FIG. 3 (B) shows a variation thereof;
FIGS. 4 and 5 are fragmentary sectional view illustrating the arrangement between an intermediate wall and an outer shell; and
FIG. 6 is a plane view thereof taken along the line V--V of FIG. 5.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, six intermediate wall segments 3 arcuate in cross section as best shown in FIG. 2 are disposed to form an intermediate wall between an outer shell 1 and an inner shell 2. Both vertical edges of each of the intermediate wall segments 3 are radially outwardly bent as best shown in FIG. 2 to form flanges 3'. As shown in FIG. 3 (A), the flanges 3' are located within an expandable joint 4 U-shaped in cross section and made of an elastic material, or cover made of cloth, glass cloth, cotton cloth, etc. and are joined with bolts 5 and stop plates 6 so that the adjacent intermediate wall segments 3 are joined to each other to form a cylindrical intermediate wall.
Alternately, the adjacent flange 3' of the intermediate segments 3 are joined with the bolts 5 after an elastic packing material such as glass fiber 5 is filled into the space between the adjacent flanges 3'.
As shown in FIG. 4, a hook member 9 is made into engagement with an eye member 7 fixed to the outer surface of each of the intermediate wall segments 3 and with an eye member 8 fixed to the inner wall of the outer shell 1 so that the intermediate wall may be supported by the outer shell. Likewise, as shown in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6, this connection type is able to be substituted as follows. Namely, member 9 is substituted for connection rod with holes on each side, member 7, 8 are substituted for tab plates with holes, and they are connected with pins or bolts 14. Furthermore heat insulating material 10 in the form of particle such as granular pearlite is packed into the space defined between the intermediate wall and the outer shell as shown in FIG. 1. The storage tank has an outer roof 11 and an inner roof 12, and a heat insulating material 13 is packed into the space between the outer and inner roofs 11 and 12. Low-temperature liquid 15 is stored within the storage tank. 16 is heat insulating material at bottom.
According to the device for supporting the heat insulating materials with the construction described, even when the space between the inner shell 2 and the outer shell 1 is increased due to the contraction of the inner shell 2 because of the low temperature of liquid 15 stored in the tank, the intermediate wall may keep the same distance from the outer shell 1 because they are interconnected by the hook members 9. Furthermore the circumferential expansion and constraction of the intermediate wall may be absorbed by the deformation of the elastic joints 4 or 4'. Thus the cylindrical intermediate wall may be always located along the same circumference on the bottom of the storage tank. Therefore, the original configuration of a body of grannular heat insulating materials 10 packed into the space between the outer shell 1 and the cylindrical intermediate wall remains unchanged.
It is to be understood that the present invention is not limited to its preferred embodiment described hereinbefore. For instance, some of a plurality of intermediate wall segments may be joined to the outer shell, and instead of granular pearlite any granular heat insulating material may be used. That is, various modifications may be made without departing from the true spirit of the present invention.