Gas dispersion risk analysis of safety gap effect on the innovating FLNG vessel with a cylindrical platform

While the effect of the safety gap on explosions is well known, little has been carried out to evaluate the effect of the safety gap on dispersion of gas releases, this paper evaluates the effect of safety gap on gas dispersion for a cylindrical Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) vessel. The realistic ship-shaped and circular FLNG platforms are established and used for the detailed CFD based analysis; rather than the structural and hydrodynamics advantages of mobility, stability and cost efficiency etc., this study aims to investigate the safety of gas dispersion on the cylindrical FLNG and compare the safety gap effects on different configurations. A series of different safety gap configurations are evaluated for gas dispersion occurring in near field for the traditional FLNG while both near field and far field gas dispersion simulations are conducted on the cylindrical one. The overall results indicate that the safety gap is effective in reducing the gas cloud size in both FLNG configurations, however, when it comes to the gas dispersion in the far field against the leakage point, the safety gap increases the gas cloud size in the cylindrical FLNG vessel on the contrary.     

基于FLACS的海上钻探平台井喷爆炸事故后果模拟分析*

为研究海上钻探平台井喷燃爆事故后果,运用FLACS软件对某深海钻探平台井喷爆炸事故进行模拟,研究在不同事故场景下气云爆炸发展过程及平台荷载分布规律,讨论井喷速率、风向、点火位置等对爆炸超压的影响。研究结果表明:随泄漏速率增加,爆炸强度和爆炸范围均增大,爆炸严重程度不仅与井喷速率密切相关,同时也受平台结构影响;点火位置会对爆炸超压产生影响,在可燃气体与空气混合气体比例为化学理论当量比处点燃气体,生活区承受的爆炸超压最大;在设施及建构筑物分布较为密集、拥塞度较高的地方产生的爆炸超压更大。研究结果可为可为平台的阻隔防爆性能设计与应急响应提供指导。     

Experimental study on water sealing of fire barriers and explosion venting of large-scale pipeline with low-concentration gas

Low-concentration gas transported in pipelines may lead to explosion accidents because gas with a concentration of less than 30% is prone to explode. To reduce the incidence of gas explosions, water sealing of fire barriers is implemented, and explosion venting devices are installed along the pipeline. To investigate their suppression effect on low-concentration gas explosion, experiments using methane–air premixed gas under different conditions were implemented on a DN500 pipeline test system. The effects of three types of explosion venting forms (rupture disc, asbestos board, and plastic film) on explosion overpressure and flame were compared and analysed. Results show that the rupture disc, asbestos board, and plastic film can achieve adequate explosion venting, causing the peak decay rates of explosion overpressure to reach 82.37%, 81.72%, and 90.79%, respectively. The foregoing indicates that the greater the static activation pressure of the explosion venting form, the higher the peak explosion overpressure at each measurement point. Moreover, the shorter the explosion flame duration, the greater the flame propagation velocity. The research results provide an essential theoretical foundation for the effective suppression of gas explosion accidents in the process of low-concentration gas transportation.     

The TNO multi-energy method combined to mathematical programming and computational fluid dynamics for optimisation of gas detectors

Gas leakage is a matter of concern for several industries such as oil and gas, mining, food, and healthcare. When the industry considers gas detectors, the main questions are: How many gas detectors are required? Where is the best location to install them? To answer these questions Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations and optimisation procedures are employed to calculate the plume location and plume volume to better position the gas detectors. We investigated how the optimisation cell size for the set covering problem can be calculated based on a given explosion overpressure threshold. Resorted by the multi-energy explosion model, we calculate the flammable cloud volume associated with a pre-defined overpressure value. The cloud volume is applied in the solution of the set covering problem and an optimal set for the gas detectors is obtained. The final gas detector network (number and location of the devices) is validated against CFD simulations for small releases. The results provide evidence that the optimal gas detector networks is able to detect gas leaks within a feasible time.     

CO2-超细水雾对瓦斯/煤尘爆炸抑制特性研究

为了解CO2-超细水雾对瓦斯/煤尘爆炸抑制特性，用自行搭建的实验系统，从超压、火焰传播速度和火焰结构3个方面研究了CO2-超细水雾形成的气液两相介质对9.5%瓦斯/煤尘复合体系爆炸的抑爆效果、影响因素与原因。研究结果表明:随着CO2体积分数和超细水雾质量浓度的增加，爆炸火焰最大传播速度、爆炸超压峰值均出现明显下降，火焰到达泄爆口时间显著延迟；尤其当CO2体积分数达到14%与超细水雾的共同抑爆效果凸显，瓦斯/煤尘复合体系爆炸超压的“震荡平台”消失，同时火焰结构呈现“整体孔隙化”。所得结论为煤矿井下高效防爆抑爆技术进行了完善和增强。     

基于超压值地铁上覆管道爆炸对隧道及人员安全影响研究*

为分析地铁上覆管道爆炸对乘客安全影响,采用基于超压冲击波阀值数值模拟,通过将泄漏气体能量等效为TNT当量,分析不同泄漏模式爆炸冲击波对地铁隧道及人员安全影响。结果表明:爆炸产生的超压冲击波对隧道及人员影响小于限值,不会造成人员伤亡,研究结果可为地下工程下穿油气管线安全影响分析提供理论支撑。     

开敞空间可燃气云爆炸冲击波超压及灾害动力响应研究评述

为了进一步梳理和分析开敞空间可燃云爆炸冲击波超压传播规律及灾害动力响应方面的各项研究成果,推进可燃气体爆炸安全防控,减少人员伤亡和经济损失。在分析现有研究的基础上,总结开敞空间可燃气云爆炸冲击波超压传播规律及灾害动力响应研究等方面存在的不足,提出开敞空间多元混合气体爆炸冲击波超压传播规律研究、多影响参数下可燃气云爆炸冲击波超压传播规律定量分析、基于可燃气云爆炸冲击波超压作用下的承载体动力响应等未来研究的关键技术问题。     

Accuracy improvement in evaluation of gas explosion overpressures in congestions with safety gaps

This paper reports a comparison of simulations and published data from experiments carried out by TNO Prins Maurits Laboratory on geometric configurations that involved safety gaps of various separation distances. The Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) based software – FLACS is utilized to conduct the numerical simulations. In the majority of cases, good agreement is found between the simulated results and those obtained by experiment in both the donor and acceptor modules. However, a large discrepancy in the overpressures in the acceptor module is seen when the size of the separation gap approaches one or two times of the module size. A Data-dump technique is used in this study to reset the turbulence length scale for these cases with different separation distances, five sets of explosion scenarios are then numerically simulated and the overpressures are compared with experimentally measured explosion overpressures. The overall results indicate that the software with the Data-dump technique is still an extremely effective tool when it comes to the evaluation of gas explosion overpressures in areas with large separation gaps.     

Mitigation performance of the process protection system on the accident consequences of H2S-containing natural gas release and explosion

Toxic loads and explosion overpressure loads pose grave threats to the offshore oil and gas industry. Many safety measures are adopted to prevent and mitigate the adverse impacts caused by toxic loads and explosion overpressure loads. As a general safety barrier, the process protection system has been widely used but rarely evaluated. In order to assess the barrier ability, the mitigation performance of the process protection system is concerned in this study. Firstly, several chain accidents of H₂S-containing natural gas leakage and explosion are simulated by varying the response time of the process protection system with CFD code FLACS. Qualitative assessment is conducted based on the variation of the dangerous load profiles. Furthermore, the quantitative assessment of the mitigation performance is accomplished by considering its ability in reducing the probability of fatality. Emergency evacuation and no emergency evacuation are considered respectively in the quantitative assessment. The results prove that the process protection system takes effect on mitigating the toxic impact and explosion overpressure impact. The results also demonstrate that although the emergency evacuation may result in a severer explosion load to the operator, the process protection system can mitigate the adverse impacts regardless of whether the emergency evacuation is conducted or not.     

障碍物排列方式对海洋平台蒸气云爆炸的影响

为了了解障碍物排列方式对海洋平台蒸气云爆炸的影响,基于CFD方法建立蒸气云爆炸计算模型,选用国外MERGE项目的系列爆炸实验进行模型验证,提出用于衡量障碍物排列不均匀度的量化参数,针对海洋平台典型结构形式,分析障碍物排列方式对爆炸强度的影响。研究结果表明:蒸气云爆炸后果对于结构排列方式比较敏感,结构障碍物间隔均匀排列的形式造成的爆炸冲击作用最大;在爆炸发展初期阶段,障碍物阻塞程度对超压产生和发展影响更加显著。最后,基于研究结果,给出在海洋平台油气泄漏危险区将管线沿甲板非均匀排列布置等防控建议,为海洋平台蒸气云爆炸安全防控提供理论指导。     

Numerical investigation and analysis of indoor gas explosion: A case study of “6·13” major gas explosion accident in Hubei Province,China

Taking the ' 6·13 ′ major gas explosion accident in Shiyan, Hubei Province, China as an example, three problems were studied in this work: (1)The determination of the volume of natural gas involved in the explosion; (2)The propagation process of shock wave inside the building and the damage evolution process of the accident-related building; (3)The overpressure and fragment injury to the person outside the building. Through the numerical simulation in ANSYS/LS-DYNA software, the volume of natural gas involved in the explosion is determined to be 10240 × 1400 × 400 cm (length × width × height) from three perspectives: the damage to the building, the distribution of overpressure inside the building, and the TNT equivalent of the explosion energy. The simulation results are in good line with the accident, which verifies the effectiveness of the scheme and the accuracy of the numerical model. Based on the reasonable filling scheme, the propagation process of shock waves inside the building, the damage evolution process of the building, and the injury ranges of overpressure and fragments outside the building are analyzed. It can be found that the propagation of shock waves in confined space is complex and variable. The explosion shock waves are first reflected and superimposed in the watercourse, resulting in pressure rise. At about 8ms, the shock waves rushed into the first-floor space of the building, and the maximum overpressure was about 0.56 MPa. At about 50 ms, the shock waves rushed into the second-floor space, and the maximum overpressure was about 0.139 MPa. The first and second-floor slabs and infilled walls were almost completely destroyed. The interior walls of the infilled walls are mainly collapsed, and the exterior walls are ejection around the building as the center. The peak displacement and peak velocity of the interior walls of each floor are about 15% of the exterior walls. The fragments which cause fragment injury mainly come from the retaining wall above the watercourse, the maximum velocity is about 89 m/s, and the maximum displacement is 8.9 m. The safety distance of fragment injury is about 8.8 m, while the safety distance of overpressure injury is about 4.6 m. The lethal distance of fragment injury is greater than that of overpressure injury. Compared with the distance between different damage levels of overpressure injury, the difference in fragment injury is small. Therefore, the safety assessment at the engineering level only needs to consider the safety distance of fragment injury. This study can provide suggestions for evaluating the damage of natural gas cloud explosions in confined spaces and is helpful for accident investigation and safety protection.     

Study on the characteristics of gas explosion affected by induction charged water mist in confined space

To investigate the suppression effect of charged water mist on gas explosion, a small charged water mist generator and a gas explosion simulation device were designed based on the principle of electrostatic induction. Experiments for testing characteristics of the gas explosion in a confined space under different charged polarities, charged voltages and mist fluxes were carried out. Experimental results indicated that, compared with the normal water mist, the explosion peak overpressure and the flame propagation speed could be more effectively reduced by the charged water mist. And this suppression effect could be promoted by increasing the charged voltage. To visualize the effect of the charged water mist's polarity on gas explosion, comparative experiments were conducted. The results showed that the explosion peak overpressure, the overpressure rising rate, and the propagation speed of the flame were reduced by 64.7%, 33.0% and 19.4%, respectively, when a +8 kV charged voltage was applied. In situation where a -8 kV charged voltage was applied, 64.1%, 26.5% and 16.0% reductions were achieved for the explosion peak overpressure, the overpressure rising rate, and the flame propagation speed respectively. Comparison of this data leads to the conclusion that the gas explosion could be more efficiently suppressed by the positively charged water mist.     

Accident modeling of toxic gas-containing flammable gas release and explosion on an offshore platform

Toxic gas-containing flammable gas leak can lead to poisoning accidents as well as explosion accidents once the ignition source appears. Many attempts have been made to evaluate and mitigate the adverse effects of these accidents. All these efforts are instructive and valuable for risk assessment and risk management towards the poisoning effect and explosion effect. However, these analyses assessed the poisoning effect and explosion effect separately, ignoring that these two kinds of hazard effects may happen simultaneously. Accordingly, an integrated methodology is proposed to evaluate the consequences of toxic gas-containing flammable gas leakage and explosion accident, in which a risk-based concept and the grid-based concept are adopted to combine the effects. The approach is applied to a hypothetical accident scenario concerning an H₂S-containing natural gas leakage and explosion accident on an offshore platform. The dispersion behavior and accumulation characteristics of released gas as well as the subsequent vapor cloud explosion (VCE) are modeled by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code Flame Acceleration Simulator (FLACS). This approach is concise and efficient for practical engineering applications. And it helps to develop safety measures and improve the emergency response plan.     

瓦斯爆炸后空间温度分布及热危害区域分析研究

为了获得瓦斯爆炸引发次生灾害的特性参数，建立了超压预测模型及爆炸后空气温度衰减模型，并结合实验数据进行了验证。结果表明:依据所建立的超压修正模型，不同浓度和体积下的超压在爆源附近呈对数形式快速下降，之后缓慢趋向平稳；基于模型修正的爆炸超压计算公式，能够很好的对各个情形的瓦斯爆炸超压进行计算，吻合较好。对初始瓦斯体积相对较小的情形吻合度很高，对于初始体积大的瓦斯爆炸超压在100 m附近会出现一定误差，但有一定指导意义。瓦斯爆炸热危害区域的研究，对瓦斯爆炸次生灾害的防治工作具有重要意义。     

Application of the TNO multi-energy and Baker-Strehlow-Tang methods to predict hydrogen explosion effects from small-scale experiments

Analytical models or abacus are of importance to predict explosion effects in open and congested areas for industrial safety reasons. The goal of this work is to compare overpressure and flame speed values of small-scale deflagration experiments to predicted values from the TNO multi-energy (TNO ME) method and the Baker-Strehlow-Tang (BST) method. Experiments were performed in cylindrical congested volumes of hydrogen – air mixtures varying from 1.77 L to 7.07 L. The reactivity was controlled by the equivalence ratio of hydrogen-air mixtures, ranging from 0.5 to 2.5. The congestion was realized with varying numbers of grid layers and configurations. The influence of the obstacle density and the importance of the mixture reactivity to choose the strength index in order to predict the effects of an explosion has been highlighted for the TNO ME method. Predictive flame speed values from the BST method are in accordance with almost half of the experimental results and the method is conservative in most tested configurations. The use of the TNO ME method has been validated on a small-scale experiment to predict maximal overpressures generated by the deflagration of medium and large-scale H₂/air clouds.     

点火位置对独头巷道中瓦斯爆炸超压的影响

运用AutoReaGas爆炸仿真模拟器研究了独头巷道中点火位置对瓦斯爆炸后果的影响。结果表明,在本计算条件下,爆炸静态超压随着距离的增加而减小,爆炸动压随着距离的增大而增大,点火位置对爆炸后果有重要影响,点火位置离封闭端越近,各个测点上所得到的超压越大。     

Analysis of the boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion (BLEVE) of a liquefied natural gas road tanker: The Zarzalico accident

The road accident of a tanker transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) originated a fire and, finally, the BLEVE of the tank. This accident has been analyzed, both from the point of view of the emergency management and the explosion and fireball effects. The accidental sequence is described: fire, LNG release, further safety valves release, flames impingement on vessel unprotected wall, vessel failure mode, explosion and fireball. According to the effects and consequences observed, the thermal radiation and overpressure are estimated; a mathematical model is applied to calculate the probable mass contained in the vessel at the moment of the explosion. The peak overpressure predicted from two models is compared with the values inferred from the accident observed data. The emergency management is commented.     

瓦斯积聚量及爆炸距离对风机和防爆门的影响研究*

为揭示瓦斯积聚量及瓦斯爆炸距离对风机和防爆门的影响机制，利用Fluent模拟软件，结合宁煤集团羊场湾矿的实际情况，在构建三维数学物理模型的基础上，开展不同瓦斯积聚量（56.52，113.04，169.56，226.08 m3）和不同爆炸距离（20，30，50，70 m）条件下的模拟研究。研究结果表明:风机和防爆门处超压峰值随瓦斯积聚量增加而增加，均呈线性关系，瓦斯积聚量为56.52 m3时风机处超压峰值为0.260 MPa，小于风机破坏荷载0.306 MPa；考虑安全系数前提下，当瓦斯积聚量超过56.52 m3时防爆门应开启保护风机；在确定瓦斯积聚量为56.52 m3基础上，分析不同爆炸距离对风机和防爆门影响，由模拟结果可知，风机和防爆门处超压峰值随爆炸距离增加而降低，均呈幂函数关系。研究成果可为瓦斯爆炸对风机和防爆门的影响研究提供指导。     

巷道中瓦斯爆炸诱导激波传播特性研究

利用AutoReaGas软件,数值模拟巷道中瓦斯浓度和火源对瓦斯爆炸传播的影响,其计算结果表明:爆炸静态超压随着传播距离的增加而减小,而爆炸动压随着传播距离的增加而增大;点火位置距离巷道封闭端越近,各测点得到的爆炸静态超压值越大;瓦斯浓度对爆炸峰值超压影响显著,当浓度为9.5%的氧化反应当量比浓度时,得到的最大峰值超压为70.95kPa,爆炸威力最大。     

输气管道高后果区蒸气云爆炸超压预测方法探究

为准确预测输气管道高后果区在发生蒸气云爆炸事故时的超压分布情况,对国内外运用较为广泛的蒸气云爆炸超压预测经验模型和数值模拟方法进行调研,并分别应用其对某输气管道全尺寸泄漏燃爆实验进行超压预测,结合实验数据和输气管道高后果区管理现状进行方法准确性和工程适用性分析。研究结果表明：基于等效TNT假设的Henrych模型、Mills模型和等效TNT当量数值模拟方法均不适合准确预测蒸气云爆炸超压,TNO多能法和混合气体数值模拟方法所预测的结果较为接近实验结果。TNO多能法使用简便且推广性强,但主观性较大,易高估或低估爆炸后果;混合气体数值模拟方法操作繁琐且推广性差,但分析结果精度较高。在对高后果区进行安全管控时,可结合TNO多能法与混合气体数值模拟方法同时对管道工况进行评估,确定TNO多能法的爆源强度等级,继而推广使用TNO多能法。该研究结果可在较大程度上保证评估的准确性并节约成本。