Ground influence on high-pressure methane jets: Practical tools for risk assessment

High-pressure gaseous methane release is a relevant safety-related problem mainly in the Oil and Gas industry. As well documented, the reason for these safety concerns is connected with the severe consequences of the domino effect subsequent to the possible ignition. In risk assessment activities, estimation of the damage area is of primary importance in order to draw up proper safety guidelines. To do this, loss prevention specialists use quick and well-established numerical tools (i.e., integral models) in their daily activities. However, the presence of an obstacle in the flow field of the jet (e.g., the ground) is a more probable situation to deal with. It is known that integral models fail in this kind of scenario, leading to unreliable predictions. Hence, the present work investigates how an industrial ground surface influences the LFL cloud size of a horizontal high-pressure methane jet. An innovative quick procedure is proposed allowing to determine the height below which the ground begins to influence the LFL cloud size and the extent of such influence. Therefore, this procedure allows practitioners to establish when integral models can be used and when not to use them, and also provides a simple and reliable alternative to their use. These analytical instruments are derived from an extensive computational fluid dynamics analysis performed with Ansys Fluent 19.0.     

Development of inherent safety and health index for formulated product design

The numerous formulated products which are introduced to the market consist of chemical ingredients that may cause various safety and health hazards to the consumers. Therefore, it is extremely important to practice a systematic methodology to formulate products with acceptable safety and health performances. This work presents an index-based methodology to assess the safety and health hazards of the ingredients during the early formulation stage of product design. Hence, new inherent safety and health sub-indexes are introduced to improve the current safety and health hazards that are needed in formulated product design. The inherent safety and health sub-indexes are assigned with scores based on the degree of potential hazards. A higher score indicates a higher safety risk or severe health effect, and vice versa. The proposed methodology will greatly assist the users to identify the adverse safety and health effects caused by the ingredients. Hence, it is pivotal to eliminate or reduce the safety and health impacts from product usage. A case study on common ingredients used in the formulation of paint is presented on this study to describe the proposed method.     

Resilience-based approach to safety barrier performance assessment in process facilities

The performance assessment of safety barriers is essential to find vulnerable elements in a safety barrier system. Traditional performance assessment approaches mainly focus on using several static indicators for quantifying the performance of safety barriers. However, with the increasing complexity of the system, emerging hazards are highly uncertain, making it challenging for the static indicators to assess the performance of safety barriers. This paper proposes a resilience−based performance assessment method for safety barriers to overcome this problem. Safety barriers are classified according to their functions first. The dynamic Bayesian network (DBN) is then introduced to calculate the availability function under normal and disruption conditions. The ratio of the system's availability, when affected by the disruption, to the initial availability, is used to determine the absorption capacity of the system. The ratio of the quantity of availability recovery to the total quantity of system represents the adaptation and restoration capacity of the system. The system's resilience is represented by the sum of absorption, adaptation, and restoration capacities. The wax oil hydrogenation process is used to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed methodology.     

An improved grey wolf optimizer algorithm for identification and location of gas emission

Identification of the leakage of hazardous gases plays an important role in the environment protection, human health and safety of industry production. However, lots of current optimization algorithms, such as particle swarm optimization (PSO) and Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO), suffer from poor global optimization capability and estimation accuracy. In this work, a hybrid differential evolutionary and GWO (DE-GWO) algorithm is proposed. Tested by simulation cases and Prairie Grass emission experimental data, DE-GWO shows higher estimation accuracy than GWO. Compared with the other four optimization algorithms, DE-GWO exhibits finer robust stability under different population sizes, fewer iterations, as well as higher estimation accuracy with fewer search agents. Importantly, simulation results demonstrate that DE-GWO is more suitable to apply in the scene with a small number of sensors. Therefore, the proposed in this paper outperforms other optimization algorithms for the gas emission inverse problem. DE-GWO can provide reliable estimation towards gas emission identification and positioning, which shows huge potential as the data analysis module of real-time monitoring and early warning system.     

Unignited High-Pressure Methane Jet Impinging a Pipe Rack: Practical Tools for Risk Assessment

Although the diffusion of its storage and transport under liquefied conditions, nowadays it is common to have methane in gaseous form in several industrial applications. This leads to safety implications to be considered: hazards are linked to both the high-pressure at which the gas is kept and to its flammability. Scenarios where flammable jets impact an obstacle are of paramount importance because of their possible occurrence. Following a numerical approach, literature shows up that their assessment can be reliably performed by means of only Computational Fluid Dynamics tools. However, despite the improvements of computing power, Computational Fluid Dynamics costs still limit its use in daily risk analysts’ activities. Therefore, considering an accidental jet-obstacle scenario of industrial interest, the present work investigates how a pipe rack can influence the development of a high-pressure methane jet. Based on a Computational Fluid Dynamics analysis, main achievements of this work are a simple criterion able to identify the situations where the pipe rack does not influence the high-pressure methane jet behavior, therefore allowing to identify the scenarios where simpler models can be used (i.e., analytical correlations known for the free jet situation), and, if present, a simple analytical relationship that roughly predicts the influence of the pipe rack without the need of performing complex Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations.     

Improved models of failure time for atmospheric tanks under the coupling effect of multiple pool fires

Fire accidents of chemical installations may cause domino effects in atmospheric tank farms, where a large amount of hazardous substances are stored or processed. Pool fire is a major form of fire accidents, and the thermal radiation from pool fire is the primary hazard of domino accidents. The coupling of multiple pool fires is a realistic and important accident phenomenon that enhances the propagation of domino accidents. However, previous research has mostly focused on the escalation of domino accidents induced by a single pool fire. To overcome the drawback, in this study, the failure of a storage tank under the coupling effect of multiple pool fires was studied in view of spatial and temporal synergistic process. The historical accident statistics indicated that the accident scenario of two-pool fires accounted for 30.6% in pool fires. The domino accident scenario involving three tanks is analyzed, and the typical layout of tanks is isosceles right triangle based on Chinese standard “GB50341-2014”. The thermal response and damage of a target tank heated by pool fires were numerically investigated. The volume of 500 m³, 3000 m³, 5000 m³ and 10000 m³ were selected. Flame temperature was obtained by FDS, and then was input onto the finite element model. The temperature field and stress field of target tanks were simulated by ABAQUS. The results showed that the temperature rise rate of the target tanks under multiple pool fires was higher than that under a single pool fire. The failure time of the tank under the coupling effect of multiple fires was lower than that under the superposition of multiple fires without the first stage. The stress and yield strength were compared to judge the failure of the target tank. The model of failure time for the tank under the coupling effect of pool fires was established. Through the verification, the deviation of this model is 4.02%, which is better than the deviation of 15.76% with Cozzani's model.     

An experimental study of an LPG tank at low filling level heated by a remote wall fire

This paper describes an experimental study of 2300 L pressure vessels exposed to remote fire heating by a natural gas fuelled wall fire simulator. The tanks were filled to 15% capacity with commercial liquid propane. The flame intensity and distance were varied to study the effect of different heating levels on the tank and its lading.The fire simulator is first characterized with tests including fire thermocouples, radiative flux meters and thermal imaging. With the appropriate positioning of a target tank it is possible to get very realistic fire heat fluxes at the tank surface.Three tests were conducted with the 2300 L tanks filled to 15% capacity with propane. The tanks were positioned at three different distances from the wall fire resulting in measured average peak heat flux at the tank surfaces ranging between 24 and 43 kW m^?2. The data shows rapid rise in vapour space wall temperatures, significant temperature stratification in the vapour space, and moderate rate of pressure rise. These results provide excellent data for the validation of computer models used to predict the response of pressure vessels exposed to moderate heating from a remote fire.     

压缩空气泡沫灭火系统扑救浮顶储罐密封圈火灾的应用研究

分析了密封圈火灾过程及特点,建立了压缩空气泡沫灭火试验装置,参照10×10~4m~3浮顶储罐建立了20 m长的密封圈试验装置,以汽油为介质开展了多次泡沫灭火试验。试验结果表明:该压缩空气泡沫灭火试验装置可在30 s内完成灭火,泡沫混合液供给强度约14~19 L/(min·m~2),具有在大型浮顶储罐上应用的可能性。针对单台10×10~4m~3浮顶储罐浮盘密封圈灭火提出了工程应用方案,该储罐共需泡沫液量1200 L,分为4套压缩空气泡沫灭火装置均匀分布在浮盘边缘,浮盘密封圈火灾报警系统与该泡沫灭火装置联锁启动自动灭火,各套灭火装置的持续喷射时间约1 min。     

The evolution of flame length for the oil tank fire with different top cover widths and lip heights

This study presents a quantitative analysis and interpretation of the variation in oil tank fire flame lengths for different oil tank sizes, top cover widths, and horizontal air flow velocities. The experimental results show that, at first, the flame length rises slowly with an increase in air flow speed. Then, once over a critical speed (0.6 m/s), the flame length decreases significantly with a further increase in air flow speed. Based on the characteristic length, a new dimensionless heat release rate is obtained, allowing the correlation between flame length, air flow speed, and dimensionless heat release rate to be calculated, which can be used to predict the flame length of an oil tank fire under different air flow speeds, lip heights, and cover widths.     

The study of burning behaviors and quantitative risk assessment for 0# diesel oil pool fires

The liquid fuel safety issues on fuel storage, transportation and processing have gained most attention because of the high fire risk. In this paper, some 0# diesel pool fire experiments with different diameters (0.2–1 m) were conducted with initial fuel thicknesses of 2 cm and 4 cm, respectively, to obtain liquid fuel combustion characteristics. Some key parameters including mass burning rate, flame height and the flame radiative heat flux, associated with fire risk, were investigated and determined. Subsequently, a detail quantitative risk assessment framework for 0# diesel pool fire is proposed based on the 0# diesel burning characteristics. In the framework, the probability of personal dead and the facility failure are calculated by the vulnerability models, respectively. In the end, 10 special tank fire scenarios were selected to show the whole risk calculation process. The tank diameter and the distance to pool fires were paid more attention in the cases. The safety distances in the cases are provided for the persons and nearby facilities, respectively. The paper enriches the basic experimental data and the provided framework is useful to the management of 0# diesel tank areas.     

轻质油品罐区流淌火灾发展特征和危害研究

为了研究罐区储运过程中发生泄漏导致的流淌火事故,设计并搭建了流淌火燃烧试验平台。采用流淌火燃烧试验平台和CFD数值计算2种方法研究了汽油流淌燃烧特性,对比分析表明,流淌火实体试验与CFD数值计算的结果误差在可接受范围内。基于上述结论,以防火堤内储存汽油的4个2 000 m3汽油储罐罐组为研究对象,模拟计算输油管道泄漏至防火堤内引发流淌性火灾的危害特性,得到了流淌火灾蔓延发展过程以及流淌面积、温度场等特征参数的变化规律。研究结果表明:泄漏速率保持不变时,流淌面积逐渐增大直至趋于稳定,其增长速率不断减小;流淌火发展至稳定燃烧阶段时,临近储罐被火焰包围,其中高度为5 m处的罐壁温度和辐射强度最大,温度在1 300 ℃左右波动,辐射强度稳定在500 kW/m2左右。     

Smoke control of a fire in a tunnel with vertical shaft

The aim of this research is to find the optimum smoke extraction rate through the ventilation shaft in case of a fire in a long road tunnel. Furthermore, it is also investigated whether the current emergency ventilation design practice using a vertical shaft can limit the smoke propagation from a fully loaded gasoline tank lorry fire. For this research, scaled model experiments were carried out using a 20 m- long model tunnel with a vertical shaft. A CFD modeling tool was also extensively utilized to investigate the extremely dangerous situation in which a fully loaded gasoline tank lorry is burning inside a long road tunnel.     

Research on the influence of foaming gas in compressed air/nitrogen foam on extinguishing the n-heptane tank fire

Tank fires threaten the lives of people and pollute the environment for their intense radiant heat, rapid fire spread and explosion hazard. Compressed air/nitrogen foam (CAF/CNF), a cleaner fire extinguishing technique used for the tank fire suppression because halogen-based agents were prohibited for environmental reasons. In this work, the influence of foaming gas in CAF/CNF on extinguishing the n-heptane tank fire was firstly investigated. Firstly, it was found that CNF spreads faster with rapid increase in foam thickness, mainly due to its better stability and less evaporation. Secondly, after foam was discharged, there existed a short increase of the combustion intensity, associated with three monotonous regions and two time delays in the whole extinguishing time. The two time delays were caused by Rayleigh–Taylor instability and flame sheet shift, respectively, and the shift distance was larger for CNF. Finally, the influential factors contributing to flame extinction were exhibited to be mainly related to the decrease in liquid burning rate and gas-phase Damkohler number. Among these factors, foam spreading rate and thickness dominated due to coupled chemical and physical extinguishing effects. Resulted from some competitive effects, CNF was slightly more efficient at extinguishing tank fires than CAF.     

双室火灾烟气特性的实验研究

本文在１／２缩尺建筑模型中，取双室－走廊结构，以标准木垛为火源，对建筑火灾的初始阶段进行了实验模拟。着重研究了火灾初期的烟气特性及其变化，包括烟气温度及烟气中ＣＯ＿２气体和炭颗粒浓度。本文目的在于在探索和发展中等尺寸火灾实验模拟手段和方法的同时，定性地确定火源功率对烟气特性的影响，并积累一定的实验数据，为建筑火灾的分析和模化提供实验基础和依据。     

Evaluation of CFD simulations of transient pool fire burning rates

Fire is the most commonly occurring major accident hazard in the chemical and process industries, with industry accident statistics highlighting the liquid pool fire as the most frequent fire event. Modelling of such phenomena feeds heavily into industry risk assessment and consequence analyses. Traditional simple empirical equations cannot account for the full range of factors influencing pool fire behaviour or increasingly complex plant design. The use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling enables a greater understanding of pool fire behaviour to be gained numerically and provides the capability to deal with complex scenarios.This paper presents an evaluation of the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) for predictive modelling of liquid pool fire burning rates. Specifically, the work examines the ability of the model to predict temporal variations in the burning rate of open atmosphere pool fires. Fires ranging from 0.4 to 4 m in diameter, involving ethanol and a range of liquid hydrocarbons as fuels, are considered and comparisons of predicted fuel mass loss rates are compared to experimental measurements.The results show that the liquid pyrolysis sub-model in FDS gives consistent model performance for fully predictive modelling of liquid pool fire burning rates, particularly during quasi-steady burning. However, the model falls short of predicting the subtleties associated with each phase of the transient burning process, failing to reliably predict fuel mass loss rates during fire growth and extinction. The results suggest a range of model modifications which could lead to improved prediction of the transient fire growth and extinction phases of burning for liquid pool fires, specifically, investigation of: ignition modelling techniques for high boiling temperature liquid fuels; a combustion regime combining both infinite and finite-rate chemistry; a solution method which accounts for two- or three-dimensional heat conduction effects in the liquid-phase; alternative surrogate fuel compositions for multi-component hydrocarbon fuels; and modification of the solution procedure used at the liquid-gas interface during fire extinction.     

氨分解装置中液氨储罐火灾爆炸危险性分析

以某金属处理企业氨分解装置中液氨储罐罐区为例,对液氨泄漏后火灾爆炸事故及其伤害范围进行了研究,用池火、蒸气云爆炸和沸腾液体扩展蒸气爆炸模型进行计算分析,给出火灾、爆炸事故的人员伤害和财产损失范围。结果表明:围堤堤内池火或罐内池火时,罐区建构筑物内的汽化器、管道等设备会因直接过火或热辐射导致损坏,建筑内人员死亡,但难以波及罐区之外;蒸气云爆炸产生相当于1192.72kgTNT爆炸的当量,爆炸的后果严重,应重点防范,防范的重点为液氨泄漏、点火源;沸腾液体扩展蒸气爆炸的火球半径56.1m,持续时间8.7s,死亡半径27.2m,其源于储罐受热或系统突然失效,液体瞬时泄漏汽化并遇点火源而发生,具有突发性且后果严重,企业应高度重视并严格储罐及系统的定期检验与校验、密切关注系统的有效运行。     

基于锥形量热仪的计算机显示器燃烧特性分析

利用锥形量热仪对计算机显示器材料进行小尺寸燃烧性能试验研究,通过改变锥形量热仪的热辐射强度模拟中、小规模火灾。分析火灾中显示器样品的热释放速率(HRR)、质量损失速率、CO产生率和比消光系数。试验发现当热辐射强度为35 kW/m2时,计算机显示器的热释放速率比其在热辐射强度为75 kW/m2时多一个加速增长阶段,主要原因是在此热辐射强度下,材料热解速度缓慢,表面炭层厚度逐渐增厚,热量积聚后,材料热解速度增大,热释放速率加速达到第二个峰值;显示器材料在2种热辐射强度下的质量损失速率分3个阶段,炭层的包覆作用对其质量燃烧速率影响较小;显示器材料在燃烧过程中CO产生率、比消光系数和质量燃烧速率成线性递增关系。试验结果可反映显示器在真实火灾中的燃烧特性。     

多因素下小尺度油罐火燃烧速率的研究

以正庚烷为研究对象,开展了不同因素耦合作用下小尺度油罐火燃烧特性的实验研究。结果表明:在不改变其他工况条件下,开口因子直接影响燃料燃烧速率,发现不同开口因子下燃烧速率与全开口下燃烧速率之比始终正比于对应的开口面积之比,且之间存在着相应的关系式。在实验所测两种液位6cm和8cm下,其燃烧速率变化不大,由此可发现,在该实验液位下油罐火液位高度不是影响燃烧速率的主要因素。在不同的风速下,随着风速的增加燃烧速率逐渐增加并趋于一定值,且不同开口因子下风速对燃烧速率的影响程度不同。风速对开口因子大的油罐燃烧速率的影响小于开口因子较小的油罐。     

室内窗帘竖直火蔓延特性全尺寸实验研究

窗帘的安装方式对其燃烧特性有重要影响.基于9705全尺寸热释放速率实验平台,针对三种不同材质的典型窗帘试样,进行了全尺寸火灾实验.测量了试样在不同褶皱程度下的火蔓延速率、热释放速率、产生烟气的比消光系数等火灾参数,分析比较其相互关系,实验结果可为室内火灾动力学发展的数值模拟和火灾安全设计提供支撑与指导.     

机械式立体停车库中巷道防火分隔效果研究

使用火灾CFD模拟软件Fire Dynamic Simulator(FDS)建立某机械式立体停车库的火灾动力学模型,研究停车库内巷道的防火分隔作用和巷道顶部的排烟窗对烟气的控制情况。确定了此机械立体停车库的火灾发生概率为0.00786起/年,并调研了车库汽车火灾的热释放速率模型。根据模拟结果,当巷道一侧一辆车着火后,巷道另一侧车辆受到的辐射热流密度为0.6kW/m2~2.0kW/m2,不会引燃巷道另一侧车辆,利用巷道空间作为防火分隔措施是可行的。巷道顶部自然排烟百叶对于控制烟气有着显著作用,在顶层距地面10m高度处,500s时仅起火停车单元及其对面停车单元能见度低于10m,而未开设排烟窗时整个车库能见度均降至10m以下,局部区域在2m以下。