Estimation of safety distances in the vicinity of fuel gas pipelines

In this paper, safety distances around pipelines transmitting liquefied petroleum gas and pressurized natural gas are determined considering the possible outcomes of an accidental event associated with fuel gas release from pressurized transmission systems. Possible outcomes of an accidental fuel gas release were determined by performing the Event Tree Analysis approach. Safety distances were computed for two pipeline transmission systems of pressurized natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas existing in Greece using real data given by Greek Refineries and the Greek Public Gas Enterprise. The software packages chetah and breeze were used for thermochemical mixture properties estimation and quantitative consequence assessment, respectively. Safety distance determination was performed considering jet fire and gas dispersion to the lower flammable limit as the worst-case scenarios corresponding to immediate and delayed cloud ignition. The results showed that the jet fire scenario should be considered as the limiter for safety distances determination in the vicinity of natural and petroleum gas pipelines. Based on this conclusion, the obtained results were further treated to yield functional diagrams for prompt safety distance estimation. In addition, qualitative conclusions were made regarding the effect of atmospheric conditions on possible events. Thus, wind velocity was found to dominate during a jet fire event suppressing the thermal radiation effect, whereas gas dispersion was found to be affected mainly by solar radiation that favors the faster dissolution of fuel gas below the lower flammable limit.     

Individual risk analysis of high-pressure natural gas pipelines

Transmission pipelines carrying natural gas are not typically within secure industrial sites, but are routed across land out of the ownership of the pipeline company. If the natural gas is accidentally released and ignited, the hazard distance associated with these pipelines to people and property is known to range from under 20 m for a smaller pipeline at lower pressure to up to over 300 m for a larger pipeline at higher pressure. Therefore, pipeline operators and regulators must address the associated public safety issues.This paper focuses on a method to explicitly calculate the individual risk of a transmission pipeline carrying natural gas. The method is based on reasonable accident scenarios for route planning related to the pipeline's proximity to the surrounding buildings. The minimum proximity distances between the pipeline and buildings are based on the rupture of the pipeline, with the distances chosen to correspond to a radiation level of approximately 32 kW/m². In the design criteria for steel pipelines for high-pressure gas transmission (IGE/TD/1), the minimum building proximity distances for rural areas are located between individual risk values of 10⁻⁵ and 10⁻⁶. Therefore, the risk from a natural gas transmission pipeline is low compared with risk at the building separated minimum distance from chemical industries.     

Towards more detailed determination of third party impact on risk on natural gas pipelines: Influence of population density

The paper presents a refined way to quantify the effects of third party interference on risk that is posed on people by transmission pipelines for natural gas. The main focus is set on the influence of population density on risk. Using the interdisciplinary approach, the presented study combines the knowledge from relevant risk assessment recommendations, physical consequences of hazardous events, existing history databases of hazardous event frequencies and urban planning. A quantitative boundary between two most populated types of area was established. A flexible risk coefficient was determined for a suburban type of populated area that is dependent on average population density. Consequently, a new approach for determination of a hazard distance from the pipeline and area boundaries for calculation of average population density was presented. This differs from the established methods described in some guidelines, but is based on results of applied quantitative risk assessment. The final result is more accurate determination of risk levels in suburban areas. Described methods may serve as a supplement to the existing models for quantitative risk assessment on pipelines used in natural gas transportation and may be used by pipeline operators as well as policy- and decision makers.     

基于SPH-FEM耦合法的含缺陷输气管道爆炸冲击响应研究

针对大口径埋地输气管道发生物理爆炸对并行含体积缺陷邻管的冲击行为，利用LS-DYNA和LS-PREPOST有限元软件建立基于光滑粒子流体动力学-有限单元法的管-土-炸药耦合模型，分析不同缺陷深度、不同缺陷表面积、不同缺陷位置和不同爆心距下邻管的动力响应；基于爆腔预估公式和峰值振速经验公式，验证了所建耦合模型的可靠性，并通过设计算例开展多工况分析。研究结果表明:迎爆面上的缺陷处为动力响应的热点区域，最大响应特征值（应力、位移与振速）位于缺陷中心处，随缺陷深度的增加或管间距的减小特征值增速由平缓到急剧；相比缺陷位置和表面尺寸对管道的扰动程度，缺陷深度和爆心距对管道的动力响应影响较大；在本研究的条件下，建议埋地并行输气管道的安全间距不应小于5.16 m，且腐蚀深度不大于管道壁厚的0.633 6倍。研究结果可为埋地输气管道极端灾害下的风险评估提供技术支撑，为并行管道可能的抗爆隔爆设计提供模拟数据支持。     

基于多维云模型的埋地并行油气管道风险评价研究*

为提高风险评价准确性以有效支撑管道完整性维护,保证油气管道在多管并行敷设下安全运行,提出1种基于博弈论-多维云模型的风险评价方法。首先,从并行间距、土壤压实度、土壤导热系数、介质流速、管径、埋深、应急响应时间、上下游截断阀间距等方面建立并行管道风险评价指标体系,为降低传统赋权方法的主观性,通过结合熵权法改进层次分析法（AHP）,从而确定主客观权重,再经博弈论组合赋权法综合计算指标权重;其次,运用多维云模型理论确定风险等级,通过修正各风险评分项的等级区间结合指标权重,计算出各级的综合确定度,并进行等级评判;最后,将该方法应用于工程实例。研究结果表明:所评价管段的指标风险处于中等风险水平,风险可接受,管段的整体风险评价结果良好,有利于并行管道安全管理;实例证明该评价方法具有较好的适用性。     

Dynamic probability assessment of urban natural gas pipeline accidents considering integrated external activities

Urban gas pipelines usually have high structural vulnerability due to long service time. The locations across urban areas with high population density make the gas pipelines easily exposed to external activities. Recently, urban pipelines may also have been the target of terrorist attacks. Nevertheless, the intentional damage, i.e. terrorist attack, was seldom considered in previous risk analysis of urban gas pipelines. This work presents a dynamic risk analysis of external activities to urban gas pipelines, which integrates unintentional and intentional damage to pipelines in a unified framework. A Bayesian network mapping from the Bow-tie model is used to represent the evolution process of pipeline accidents initiating from intentional and unintentional hazards. The probabilities of basic events and safety barriers are estimated by adopting the Fuzzy set theory and hierarchical Bayesian analysis (HBA). The developed model enables assessment of the dynamic probabilities of consequences and identifies the most credible contributing factors to the risk, given observed evidence. It also captures both data and model uncertainties. Eventually, an industrial case is presented to illustrate the applicability and effectiveness of the developed methodology. It is observed that the proposed methodology helps to more accurately conduct risk assessment and management of urban natural gas pipelines.     

燃气管网定量风险分析方法综述

以城市燃气管网的风险为研究对象,分析并提出一种可用于城市燃气管网定量风险分析的新思路,包含了不同事故后果及其物理模型的分析即事故可能性分析、后果分析和风险评价,分为失效事故假定、泄漏率计算、物理效应计算、致死率计算、风险值计算、风险评价等环节;整理、研究城市燃气管网定量风险分析所涉及的多种物理模型,并通过比较不同模型的特点,分析各个模型的不足之处;最后针对国内外研究现状及燃气管网风险的特点,指出研究发展方向:研究风险在燃气管网内的传播,提出燃气管网相继失效的风险分析方法。所提出的分析思路、计算方法可与工程应用相结合。     

城市天然气工程环境风险评价

结合广州、深圳、东莞、佛山等城市的天然气工程情况,对城市天然气工程的环境风险评价进行了讨论,并采用穆尔哈斯(Moorhowse)和普里恰特(Prichard)提出的热辐射预测模式和爆炸冲击波预测模式对城市天然气工程进行了风险评价.结果表明,如果发生天然气泄漏并引起火灾,假设在10 min以内,城市门站、调压站和城市高中压管道的火球对建筑物和设备的严重损害范围( A 级)最远距离分别为35.8 m、18.0 m和28.7 m,爆炸冲击波严重损害范围( C1 级)分别为距事故处54.8 m、27.8 m和44.4 m.最后从城市门站、调压站选址及输气管道选线、安全防范距离、作业过程中的风险控制与管理以及事故应急对策四方面提出了风险事故的防范措施与对策.     

城市天然气管道泄漏的危害分析

城市天然气系统的管道化很大程度上便利了人们的生活,但与此同时管道泄漏也造成灾难性后果.采用高斯烟团扩散模型,对天然气管道瞬间泄漏的扩散行为进行模拟,计算出天然气管道泄漏后的最大危害距离,其结果可以为应急救援提供决策支持.     

Societal risk acceptance criteria for gas distribution pipelines based on incident data from the United States

A significant number of pipeline operators use pipeline integrity management (PIM) to improve pipeline safety and reliability. Risk assessment is a critical step in PIM, because it determines the necessity of conducting the following steps in PIM for certain pipelines. Risk acceptance criteria are required in the process of risk assessment. Individual risk and societal risk are most frequently adopted as the two indicators of the risk acceptance criteria. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, quantitative societal risk acceptance criteria, especially for gas distribution pipelines, do not exit. The aim of this paper is to establish the societal risk acceptance criteria for gas distribution pipelines. Hence, FN curves were established using historical incident data from 2002 to 2017 provided by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). Linear regression and the ALARP principle are used in evaluating the limits of the negligible line and intolerable line to obtain a graphical societal risk acceptance criterion for gas distribution pipelines. A line having a slope of −1.224, and an anchor point of (1, 8.413 × 10⁻⁷) is proposed as the negligible line. Further, the intolerable line has a slope of −1.224, and an anchor point of (1, 2.524 × 10⁻⁶). Both the negligible risk and the intolerable risk for the gas distribution pipeline are lower than the current societal risk acceptance criteria for hazardous installations. The reasons for these relatively lower risk acceptance criteria are discussed.     

An integrated quantitative risk analysis method for natural gas pipeline network

Natural gas industry is developing rapidly, and its accidents are threatening the urban safety. Risk management through quantitative assessment has become an important way to improve the safety performance of the natural gas supply system. In this paper, an integrated quantitative risk analysis method for natural gas pipeline network is proposed. This method is composed of the probability assessment of accidents, the analysis of consequences and the evaluation of risk. It is noteworthy that the consequences analyzed here include those of the outside and inside gas pipelines. The analysis of consequences of the outside pipelines focuses on the individual risk and societal risk caused by different accidents, while those of the inside pipelines concerns about the risk of the economic loss because of the pressure re-distribution. Risk of a sample urban gas pipeline network is analyzed to demonstrate the presented method. The results show that this presented integrated quantitative risk analysis method for natural gas pipeline network can be used in practical application.     

Application of game theory in risk management of urban natural gas pipelines

This paper presents a game theory methodology for risk management of urban natural gas pipelines, which is a collaborative participation mechanism of the stakeholders, including government, pipeline companies, and the public. Firstly, the involvement proportion of stakeholders in risk management under rational conditions is estimated by the static game theory. Subsequently, the system dynamics (SD) simulation is used to establish an evolution game model of stakeholders in risk management under the irrational conditions, in which the stability of the evolution game process is analyzed. The stakeholders’ involvement proportions from the static game model are utilized as the inputs for the evolution game model to simulate the dynamic evolution behavior of risk management strategies with different involvement proportions of stakeholders. Eventually, the dynamic evaluation game can extract an optimal strategy for risk management of urban natural gas pipelines. A case study is used to illustrate the methodology. In essence, this methodology can be extended for implementing risk management of urban infrastructure.     

天然气管道不同孔径泄漏失效概率量化方法研究*

为研究不同孔径泄漏下天然气管道失效概率,首先基于EGIG数据库和UKOPA数据库天然气管道历史失效数据,计算由不同失效原因导致3种孔径泄漏所占比例;然后将我国管道各原因基础失效概率按照对应比例分别进行修正,获得较适用于我国天然气管道特点的不同孔径泄漏基础失效概率;最后分别考虑第三方破坏、腐蚀、施工缺陷/材料失效、误操作、自然力破坏5种失效原因,完成对天然气管道不同孔径泄漏基础失效概率的修正计算。研究结果表明:小孔泄漏、中孔泄漏和破裂泄漏的基础失效概率分别为0.173,0.128,0.048次/（103 km·a）;修正因子包括管径、埋深、壁厚、管龄、防腐层类型、管道所处区域,上述因子能够满足不同场景下天然气管道失效概率的修正计算;概率量化方法综合考虑失效原因、泄漏孔径以及管道本体信息,能够定量化预测天然气管道失效概率,为天然气管道定量风险评价提供数据支撑。     

Integrated dynamic risk assessment of buried gas pipeline leakages in urban areas

In urban areas, buried gas pipeline leakages could potentially cause numerous casualties and massive damage. Traditional static analysis and dynamic probability-based quantitative risk assessment (QRA) methods have been widely used in various industries. However, dynamic QRA methods combined with probability and consequence are rarely used to evaluate gas pipelines buried in urban areas. Therefore, an integrated dynamic risk assessment approach was proposed. First, a failure rate calculation of buried gas pipelines was performed, where the corrosion failure rate dependent on time was calculated by integrating the subset simulation method. The relationship between failure probability and failure rate was considered, and a mechanical analysis model considering the corrosion growth model and multiple loads was used. The time-independent failure rates were calculated by the modification factor methods. Next, the overall evolution process from pipeline failures to accidents was proposed, with the accident rates subsequently updated. Then, the consequences of buried gas pipeline accidents corresponding to the accident types in the evolution process were modeled and analyzed. Finally, based on the above research, dynamic calculation and assessment methods for evaluating individual and social risks were established, and an overall application example was provided to demonstrate the capacity of the proposed approach. A reliable and practical theoretical basis and supporting information are provided for the integrity and emergency management of buried gas pipelines in urban areas, considering actual operational conditions.     

1种城市燃气管道风险评估模型及其应用研究

为科学评估燃气管道在复杂且敏感的城市环境中个人风险可接受情况，促进城市和谐稳定。以燃气管道泄漏射流火灾为事故场景，在常规评估基础上结合管道地区特点，构建基于公众可接受伤亡风险标准的评估模型，并通过案例分析，开展城市燃气管道个人风险定量评估研究。结果表明:我国城市燃气管道个人死亡风险、个人受伤风险可接受标准的建议值分别为5.00×10-6和2.74×10-5，其在一般情况下的公众可接受风险标准建议值范围为5.00×10-7~5.50×10-5和2.74×10-6~4.11×10-4；公众的伤亡风险感知偏差将直接影响风险评估结果，及时有效地对目标群体进行风险疏导以改善其风险认知，有助于避免公众风险感知偏差引发的负面社会效应。     

基于AHP-熵权法的城市燃气管道风险评价*

为全面、客观地评价城市燃气管道风险,提出1种基于AHP-熵权法的城市燃气管道风险评价模型。该模型基于风险评价理论,结合管道失效可能性与后果严重性,构建包含105个评价底因素的城市燃气管道风险评价指标体系。针对城市燃气管道风险因素的复杂性和模糊性,引入模糊数学思想和方法,结合AHP和熵权法确定评价指标的综合权重,再运用模糊综合评价法和风险分析矩阵评估燃气管道风险等级。结果表明:该评价模型风险评价结果与实际情况相符,可为城市燃气管道风险预警与管理提供依据。     

Risk assessment of sour gas inter-phase onshore pipeline using ANN and fuzzy inference system – Case study: The south pars gas field

Nowadays, pipelines have been extensively used for transporting oil and gas for long distances. Therefore, their risk assessment could help to identify the associated hazards and take necessary actions to eliminate or reduce the risk. In the present research, an artificial neural network (ANN) and a fuzzy inference system (FIS) were used to prepare a new model for pipeline risk assessment with higher accuracy. To reach this objective, the Muhlbauer method, as a common method for oil and gas pipeline risk assessment, was used for determining important and influential factors in the pipeline performance. Mamdani fuzzy model was developed in Matlab software by considering expert knowledge. The outcomes of this model were used to develop an ANN. To verify the developed model, the inter-phase shore pipe of phase 9–10 refinery in the South Pars Gas field was considered as a case study. The results showed that the proposed model gives a higher level of accuracy, precision, and reliability in terms of pipe risk assessment.     

基于模糊综合评价法的某加油站安全选址研究

为避免事故、降低损失,合理地对加油站进行选址,提出了一种加油站安全选址风险评价指标体系,通过层次分析法确定各指标权重,利用加权平均算子合成模型。该模型从加油站选址的自然条件、区域条件、社会条件、加油站规模和应急救援条件五个方面对加油站选址的风险进行综合评估,并以重庆市璧山区某待建加油站作为案例论述了该模型的应用。结果表明通过最大隶属法和赋值法都得出案例加油站安全选址风险评价等级为“较好”,二者结论一致,并且与案例加油站的实际状况相符合。     

基于IAHP和灾变链式方法的城市油气管道风险诱因与预警研究

城市油气管道穿越城区街道、建筑和居民区等特殊地段,保障其安全运行具有重要意义。为实现城市油气管道风险早期预警,基于城市与野外长输油气管道风险对比分析,识别城市油气管道风险预警指标;建立城市油气管道风险预警指标体系,采用区间层次分析法对预警指标重要度进行定量排序,确定关键预警监测点;并依据灾变链式理论,构建城市油气管道重大事故灾变链式模型,研究管道风险演化过程,发现灾变前兆进行断链减灾。研究结果表明:“腐蚀”及“第三方破坏”占据城市油气管道失效致因比重最大,风险因子“油气管道与市政管道距离”以及“城市工程施工作业”应作为城市油气管道重点监测点。同时,围绕城市油气管道风险预警需致力于孕源断链。     

Risk assessment methodology for high-pressure CO2 pipelines incorporating topography

This paper presents a risk assessment methodology for high-pressure CO₂ pipelines developed at the Health and Safety Laboratory as part of the EU FP7 project CO2Pipehaz.Traditionally, consequence modelling of dense gas releases from pipelines at major hazard impact levels is performed using integral models with limited or no consideration being given to weather bias or topographical features of the surrounding terrain. Whilst dispersion modelling of CO₂ releases from pipelines using three-dimensional CFD models may provide higher levels of confidence in the predicted behaviour of the cloud, the use of such models is resource-intensive and usually impracticable. An alternative is to use more computationally efficient shallow layer or Lagrangian dispersion models that are able to account for the effects of topography whilst generating results within a reasonably short time frame.In the present work, the proposed risk assessment methodology for CO₂ pipelines is demonstrated using a shallow-layer dispersion model to generate contours from a sequence of release points along the pipeline. The simulations use realistic terrain taken from UK topographical data. Individual and societal risk levels in the vicinity of the pipeline are calculated using the Health and Safety Laboratory's risk assessment tool QuickRisk.Currently, the source term for a CO₂ release is not well understood because of its complex thermodynamic properties and its tendency to form solid particles under specific pressure and temperature conditions. This is a key knowledge gap and any subsequent dispersion modelling, particularly when including topography, may be affected by the accuracy of the source term.