Marine LNG terminal

 Seismic Calculations

Purposes of DYNAMIS mission

Invenergy Clean Power LLC is planning to construct a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Marine Terminal to support the operations of a LNG-fired power plant located in the municipality of Acajutla, department of Sonsonate, El Salvador to be constructed by Energia del Pacifico SA (EDP). The terminal will support gas deliveries from LNG Carriers (LNGC) and will berth a semi-permanent Floating Storage Unit (FSU) vessel. Additional fuel storage will utilize a permanently stationed barge-type Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU). Mooring and breasting points will provide semi-permanent and permanent mooring to vessels. A riser and subsea pipeline will transmit gas from the marine terminal to the shore at the port of Acajutla.

ACCIONA INGENIERÍA has entrusted DYNAMIS ASSOCIATES with the feasibility analyses in the “Early Works” phase.

A very high Seismic Risk Location

It is essential to understand that El Salvador is located in an area of ​​very high seismic activity, and has a series of seismogenic sources of difficult characterization:

• Local volcanic chain runs along the territory of El Salvador and is part of the so-called Pacific Fire Belt.
• The Southeast Northeast orientation is marked by a system of local geological faults
• The Subduction zone part of the Cocos and Caribbean plates.
• The Caribbean Plate bordering the North American Plate next to Guatemala.
• A system of north-south geological faults, located in Honduras.

The earthquakes produced by the local volcanic chain and the system of local geological faults of the Northeast Southeastern line are cortical earthquakes, causing the greatest destruction in El Salvador to date.

The purpose of the work carried out by DYNAMIS ASSOCIATES was to perform a preliminary seismic analysis of the installation using “Performance-Based Design” concepts, in which the seismic forces developed in the structures have been calculated performing a non-linear analysis including nonlinear soil-structure interaction. The goal was to demonstrate the feasibility of the system proposed by ACCIONA.

Our Analysis has demosntrated the viability of the solution proposed by ACCIONA INGENIERIA using non-linear calculations and taking into account the soil-structure behaviour in a very high seismic level location.