GAS CARRIERS

FOREWORD

At the end of 2003 ABS Pacific requested me to plan and

organize a training course for the ABS surveyors who were
assigned to follow the construction of LNG carriers in
Korea.

It was decided that the best possible training was a

combination of a theoretical class-room course followed by
an extensive on-the-job training.

At beginning of 2004 we started to prepare the lectures for

the class-room training

It was decided to divide the matter of the course into 20 self-standing 2 hours Modules (one Module one
Subject) to be given to the trainees at the rate of two Modules per week. The first pilot course for about 15
surveyors started on March 2004 and ended on June 2004.

After this first training, the lectures have been continuously up-to-dated based on the feedback received
from the people who attended our courses and new available information on technology progress and the
necessity to add new Modules covering subjects not contemplated in the first version, such as for instance
LPG carriers. This book contains all the 23 Modules, which are part of our Gas Carrier training course
updated at February 2006.

The content of the 23 Modules has not been modified / adapted for publication as a book (or handbook) but
all Modules have been kept as they were conceived, i.e. the texts of a series of class-room lectures. This is the
reason of a number of repetitions, a style not completely uniform among the various Modules and, maybe, a
specific address towards the Classification Society Surveyors activity rather than other operators in the gas
carriers sector.

Even though the book is quite comprehensive, of course not all the subjects have been dealt with in the same
manner. Some subjects are quite detailed and some are just addressed. The way each subject has been dealt
with is also a didactic choice, taking into account that each one of the 23 Modules could require a book of the
size of this whole book in order to be completely and exhaustively developed. Of course, it is not possible to
become an EXPERT of gas carriers with just one-week course, or just reading this book. This has never been
our ambition, as we are fully aware that the real expertise in this matter can only be achieved by a suitable
on-the-job training followed by some years of work in this particular sector. Our ambition is to be able to
give with this course (book) a complete overview and a general knowledge of all the aspect of the design,
construction and operation of gas carriers to be used as the first stone of the experience building on gas
carriers. Based on the success, that this course had not only with our surveyors, but also with our customers
(shipyards and ship-owners) who had the opportunity to follow our courses, we are confident to have
succeeded to achieve this goal.

As already mentioned, some Modules, in particular those dedicated to the cargo containment system
installation of membrane cargo ships would appear quite detailed and might be erroneously considered as a
 GAS CARRIERS

complete guide for the design and construction LNGC. This would be very dangerous. Even though many
details and many tolerances have been indicated, it is to be clear that these are indicated exclusively for
didactic purpose, to give a clear idea of the degree of accuracy to be used for the construction of an LNGC.
However, no all information contained in a design specification are included in this book, therefore the
application of the part of information therein contained for designing and building an LNGC may be
misleading and source of errors if applied without taking into account the actual design specifications. It is
to be clear that this book can only be used as a general reference, but for any practical application
reference is to be made to the Designers and/or Shipyards specifications and no other use is to be made
of this book.

Many sources have been used for preparing this book. It is almost impossible to mention all the used source.
The most important of these sources are LNGONEWORLD for statistic data, the drawings and specifications
of GTT for the membrane ship cargo containment system and installation, keeping out any confidential
information and limiting the information to what any person visiting a ship under construction can see, a
number of papers presented at various conferences, which are available in INTERNET and in the published
proceeding of the conference, the lectures given around the word by ABS experts and the photos taken by
our surveyors during their work.

Of course, it would be almost impossible for one person to collect so much material, used for the preparation
this book. Many ABS persons gave an enthusiastic cooperation to the preparation of the course and to its
success, and all these persons, together with all the surveyors and clients, who attending the course supplied
us with useful feedback, deserve to be specially thanked. In particular I would like to mention with
gratitude:

Paul Riley, who drafted the first version of Module 4 (second part), 11, 12, 16 and 22 and with is
outstanding experience and his activity of first instructor in the field provided so many, so many precious
advices and so much material for all the other modules.

Denis Jenny, who drafted the first version of Modules 8, 9 and 10 (MARK III system installation)

Mark Corsetti, who read all the book to improve the English of the book and helped writing certain parts of
Modules 1, 10, 12, and 18.

AurelianVasilache, who wrote some parts of Module 13

Giorgio Barbini, who supplied me a huge amount of useful material

Ah Kuan Seah, who supplied me a huge amount of useful material

Mumtaz Mahmood, who supplied me useful material on the alternative propulsion systems and on Moss
Rosenberg construction

Osamu Hirahama, who supplied me the material on SPB ships

Shigeo Higuchi, who supplied me important material on LPG carrier

Jaime Guzman, who supplied me the material on LPG carriers built in Italy

Yoshi Osaki, who supplied me the material on high voltage electric plants

Michael Weathcroft, who supplied me the material relative of aluminum metallurgy and welding.
 GAS CARRIERS

And finally I wish to thank Eric Kleess to have given me the enthusiasm, the resources and the possibility to
complete this work in a reasonable time.

Raffaele Piciocchi1

1
RAFFAELE PICIOCCHI, ABS Overall Project Manager Korea Gas Carriers, is a Naval Architect and
marine Engineer with 35 years experience in the classification of all type of vessels. His varied experience
includes assignment to hull and machinery plan review offices, Rule development, Project Management of
specialized vessels and several important offshore and industrial plants, Quality Assurance and Chairman
and Representative of Notified Bodies for the European Marine Directive (MED) to EU. He has been
involved in new construction of gas carriers in both plan review and overall project management capacities
for over 20 years. Presently, he is responsible of the ABS group of surveyors dedicated to gas carriers
activities in Korea and the worldwide ABS training on gas carriers.