Modeling of a cryogenic liquid pool boiling by CFD simulation

A boiling model is developed by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code to calculate the source term of a cryogenic liquid spill. The model includes the effect of the changing ground temperature on the vaporization rate of the cryogenic liquid. Simulations are performed for liquid nitrogen. The model can describe different boiling regimes (film, transition and nucleate). The heat flux calculated for each boiling regimes are compared to the experimental data from literature. The developed numerical model seems to have a good ability to predict the heat flux for the film boiling stage. Model development is still necessary to improve the prediction of the nucleate boiling regime. Overall, the approach shows very promising results to model the complex physical phenomena involved in in the vaporization of cryogenic liquid pool spilled on ground.     

Modeling the vapor source term associated with the spill of LNG into a sump or impoundment area

The recent publication of evaluation protocols for vapor source term models and vapor dispersion models have influenced the modeling approaches that can be used for approval of new and expansion projects at LNG receiving terminals. In the past few years the scientific basis of integral vapor source term models has been questioned with growing concerns regarding their validity. In this paper, the shallow water equations (SWEs) were solved to study the characteristics of the evaporating LNG pool associated with a constant flow rate spill of LNG into a concrete sump. In the early stages of pool spreading, the leading edge thickness profile of the SWE model scales with the square root of the distance from the leading edge as the pool spreads. After the edge of the pool reaches the wall, the reflected wave forms a hydraulic jump that travels back towards the center of the pool at a speed that is considerably slower than the initial spreading of the pool. Once the hydraulic jump reaches the center, the pool assumes a nearly flat free surface for the rest of the spill. The pool spreading and the rate of evaporation from the SWEs were then compared to the solution provided by the integral model, PHAST. The two approaches were found to agree well with one another. The SWE model was also used to demonstrate the influence of an elevated spill source. With an elevated source, the LNG pool spreads faster, significantly increasing the initial rate of vaporization and peak vaporization rate. This increase in the initial rate of vaporization could lead to an increase in the vapor cloud hazard distance. The SWE model was also used to demonstrate the influence of an inclined sump floor in the shape of an inverted cone where the spilling LNG accumulates in the low vertex of the cone. Inclined sump floors can be used to significantly reduce the cumulative evaporation, making them attractive as a possible mitigation approach in cases where a containment sump is located close to a property boundary.     

Investigation of pool spreading and vaporization behavior in medium-scale LNG tests

A failure of a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) tanker can occur due to collision or rupture in loading/unloading lines resulting in spillage of LNG on water. Upon release, a spreading liquid can form a pool with rapid vaporization leading to the formation of a flammable vapor cloud. Safety analysis for the protection of public and property involves the determination of consequences of such accidental releases. To address this complex pool spreading and vaporization phenomenon of LNG, an investigation is performed based on the experimental tests that were conducted by the Mary Kay O'Connor Process Safety Center (MKOPSC) in 2007. The 2007 tests are a part of medium-scale experiments carried out at the Brayton Fire Training Field (BFTF), College Station. The dataset represents a semi-continuous spill on water, where LNG is released on a confined area of water for a specified duration of time. The pool spreading and vaporization behavior are validated using empirical models, which involved determination of pool spreading parameters and vaporization rates with respect to time. Knowledge of the pool diameter, pool height and spreading rate are found to be important in calculating the vaporization rates of the liquid pool. The paper also presents a method to determine the vaporization mass flux of LNG using water temperature data that is recorded in the experiment. The vaporization rates are observed to be high initially and tend to decrease once the pool stopped spreading. The results of the analysis indicated that a vaporization mass flux that is varying with time is required for accurate determination of the vaporization rate. Based on the data analysis, sources of uncertainties in the experimental data were identified to arise from ice formation and vapor blocking.     

Highlights of LNG risk technology

The authors have recently undertaken a major review of LNG consequence modeling, compiling a wide range of historical information with more recent experiments and modeling approaches in a book entitled “LNG Risk-Based Safety: Modeling and Consequence Analysis”. All the main consequence routes were reviewed – discharge, evaporation, pool and jet fire, vapor cloud explosions, rollover, and Rapid Phase Transitions (RPT’s). In the book, experimental data bases are assembled for tests on pool spread and evaporation, burn rates, dispersion, fire and radiation and effects on personnel and structures. The current paper presents selected highlights of interest: lessons learned from historical development and experience, comparison of predictions by various models, varying mechanisms for LNG spread of water, a modeling protocol to enable acceptance of newer models, and unresolved technical issues such as cascading failures, fire engulfment of a carrier, the circumstances for a possible LNG BLEVE, and accelerated evaporation by LNG penetration into water.     

水面LNG液池扩展模型的分析与对比研究

为了评价在开阔水面上的液化天然气（LNG）火灾和蒸气云爆炸灾害后果,分析了LNG水面扩展动态过程;对比分析了Fay模型、FERC模型和计算流体力学软件FLACS的计算结果,探讨了LNG液池面积随时间的动态变化过程,分析了泄漏量、泄漏速率等参数对LNG液池扩展半径的影响;根据液池扩展模型的计算结果,确定了LNG液池的最大面积,并以此分析了LNG流淌火灾的辐射危害。研究结果表明:对于相同的泄漏条件,3种方法模拟的泄漏LNG水面扩展动态过程相似,一般情况下,FLACS模型,FERC模型和Fay模型所计算的最大液池半径依次增大;由于FERC模型与FLACS软件的模拟结果接近且偏于保守,故此在一般的工程应用时,采用FERC模型即可方便快捷地获得较为准确的结果。     

PADHI在LNG储罐周边土地规划决策中的应用

探讨英国健康安全委员会(HSE)推荐的危险设施周边发展规划建议(Planning Advice for Developments near Hazardous Installations,PADHI)的具体分析步骤,从个人风险角度对LNG储罐进行风险分析.通过LNG储罐案例分析PADHI方法的适用性,并给出LNG储罐周边土地的规划建议.案例分析表明,需搬迁或重新规划居民区C,而储罐周边的工业厂房、高速公路、居民区D的选址合理.研究表明,PADHI适用于工业危险源周边土地的规划,为解决重大危险设施周边土地规划等问题提供了参考,具有重要现实意义.     

Influence of active mitigation barriers on LNG dispersion

In recent years, particular interest has been direct to the issues of risk associated with the storage, transport and use of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) due to the increasing consideration that it is receiving for energy applications. Consequently, a series of experimental and modeling studies to analyze the behavior of LNG have been carried out to collect an archive of evaporation, dispersion and combustion information, and several mathematical models have been developed to represent LNG dispersion in realistic environments and to design mitigation barriers.This work uses Computational Fluid Dynamics codes to model the dispersion of a dense gas in the atmosphere after accidental release. In particular, it will study the dispersion of LNG due to accidental breakages of a pipeline and it will analyze how it is possible to mitigate the dispersing cloud through walls and curtains of water vapor and air, also providing a criterion for the design of such curtains.     

The effect of turbulence on the rate of evaporation of LNG on water

The present study provides new measurements of the rate of evaporation of cryogenic liquids, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and liquid nitrogen (LN₂), floating on a water surface with different levels of turbulence intensity. The turbulent water surface is generated with an upward-pointing submerged jet with controlled jet velocity, an approach which has often been used in studies of free-surface turbulence. Direct measurements of the rate of evaporation were carried out for different pool thicknesses and turbulence intensities of the water surface. These tests reveal a strong dependence of the evaporation rate on the turbulence intensity, as well as a dependence on the thickness of the cryogenic liquid layer above the water surface. Models of LNG spills on water currently use a single rate of evaporation; these findings show that this approach is inadequate. Future models should incorporate the water turbulence intensity, and possibly the LNG spill thickness for improved accuracy.     

Dynamic simulation of hazard analysis of radiations from LNG pool fire

Because of its highly flammable nature, any accidental release of liquefied natural gas (LNG) could possibly pose significant fire hazard. In this study, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was used to analyze this hazard around an existing LNG station. By assuming an LNG pool fire occurring in an impoundment area, dynamic simulations of flame development have been carried out. In order to provide more reliable simulation results, a study was first conducted to determine the mesh independence and suitable time step. The results of CFD simulations were also compared with those using the commonly-used phenomenological model. The simulation results showed that LNG tanks in the neighbor dike area could withstand the received radiant heat flux, and the areas involving human activities, such as security office and public area, were also secure enough for people to escape from the hazards. LNG vaporizers, which are often located close to tank area, could possibly receive relatively higher radiant heat flux. High temperature achieved on vaporizers could cause material failure. CFD calculations have also indicated that increasing the spacing distance or using flowing water curtain could reduce this temperature. It is concluded that CFD method is significantly more effective to account for LNG hazard analysis and provide realistic results for complicated scenarios, thus providing meaningful information for safety consideration.     

Evaluating the potential for overpressures from the ignition of an LNG vapor cloud during offloading

Ignition of natural gas (composed primarily of methane) is generally not considered to pose explosion hazards when in unconfined and low- or medium-congested areas, as most of the areas within LNG regasification facilities can typically be classified. However, as the degrees of confinement and/or congestion increase, the potential exists for the ignition of a methane cloud to result in damaging overpressures (as demonstrated by the recurring residential explosions due to natural gas leaks). Therefore, it is prudent to examine a proposed facility’s design to identify areas where vapor cloud explosions (VCEs) may cause damage, particularly if the damage may extend off site.An area of potential interest for VCEs is the dock, while an LNG carrier is being offloaded: the vessel hull provides one degree of confinement and the shoreline may provide another; some degree of congestion is provided by the dock and associated equipment.In this paper, the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software FLACS is used to evaluate the consequences of the ignition of a flammable vapor cloud from an LNG spill during the LNG carrier offloading process. The simulations will demonstrate different approaches that can be taken to evaluate a vapor cloud explosion scenario in a partially confined and partially congested geometry.     

Application of fire suppression materials on suppression of LNG pool fires

An LNG pool fire is considered one of the main hazards of LNG, together with LNG vapor dispersion. Suppression methods are designed to reduce the hazard exclusion zones, distance to reach radiant heat of 5 kW/m², when an LNG pool fire is considered. For LNG vapor dispersion, the hazard exclusion zone is the distance travelled by the LNG vapor to reach a concentration of 2.5% v/v (half of the LNG lower flammability limit).Warming the LNG vapor to reach positive buoyancy faster is one way to suppress LNG vapor dispersion and reduce evaporation rate (thus fire size and its associated radiant heat) and that is the main objective in LNG pool fire suppression. Based on previous research, the use of high expansion foam has been regarded as the primary method in suppressing LNG pool fires. However, in 1980, another method was introduced as an alternative pool fire suppression system, Foamglas^®. The research concluded that 90% of the radiant heat was successfully reduced. Currently-called Foamglas^® pool fire suppression (Foamglas^® PFS) is a passive mitigation system and is deployed after the leak occurs. Foamglas^® PFS is non-flammable, and has a density one-third of the density of LNG, thus floats when an LNG pool is formed.This paper describes the study and confirmation of Foamglas^®PFS effectiveness in suppressing LNG pool fires. In addition, while Foamglas^® PFS is not expected to suppress LNG vapor dispersion, further investigation was conducted to study the effect of Foamglas^®PFS on LNG vapor dispersion. An LNG field experiment was conducted at Brayton Fire Field. The experimental development, procedures, results and findings are detailed in this paper.     

Small-scale experimental study of vaporization flux of liquid nitrogen released on ice

One of the LNG accident scenarios is the collision of an LNG carrier on an iceberg during marine transportation. A collision can result in damages to the vessel and lead to the leakage of the contents on ice or an ice-water mixture. When cryogenic liquid comes in contact with ice, it undergoes rapid vaporization due to the difference in temperature between the ice and cryogenic liquid. This process is different from the heat transfer between water and cryogenic liquid as ice is a solid and thus heat transfer to the pool occurs primarily through conduction. In this paper, the heat transfer phenomenon between ice and cryogenic liquid was studied through a small-scale experiment and the resulting vaporization mass fluxes were reported. The experiment involved six spills with varying amount of liquid nitrogen on different ice temperature to determine its effect on vaporization mass flux. The vaporization mass fluxes were determined by direct measurement of the mass loss during the experiment. The results indicated that the vaporization mass flux was a function of release rate and ice temperature. When the release rate and ice temperature was high, the vaporization mass flux follows a decreasing trend. With further reduction in release rate and ice temperature, the vaporization mass flux was found to be independent with time. The one dimensional conduction model was validated against experimental results. The predicted temperatures and heat flux were found to be in good agreement with the experimental data.     

防护堤高度对LNG扩散行为影响研究

防护堤是LNG储罐区重要的安全措施之一,防护堤高度对于LNG的扩散行为具有显著影响。采用计算流体动力学(CFD)研究半地下LNG储罐区不同防护堤高度下的LNG液池和LNG蒸气云扩散行为,对比分析储罐区底面积和防护堤高度对LNG蒸气扩散距离和扩散速度影响。结果表明防护堤高度的增加可有效减小LNG蒸气云的0.5倍燃烧下限(LFL)扩散距离。因此,对于同一种半地下LNG储罐区,在液池充分扩展前,可燃气云最大扩散距离与储罐区底面积成正比,防护堤高度的增加可减小LNG可燃气云的扩散距离。研究结果可指导LNG加气站半地下LNG储罐区防护堤的设置。     

Quantification of turbulence in cryogenic liquid using high speed flow visualization

A high speed flow visualization experiment was conducted to characterize the boiling induced turbulence when a cryogenic liquid is released on water. The advective transport of turbulent structures traversing through the liquid was captured and reconstructed using image processing software to obtain information on velocity components. The numerical results obtained from image processing were used to determine turbulence parameters like turbulent intensity, turbulent kinetic energy and eddy dissipation rate. An interesting aspect of the study was the formation of wavy structures called ‘thermals’ which were characteristic of turbulent convection. The thermals were found to act as a catalyst in increasing heat transfer and turbulence between water and cryogenic pool. The turbulent intensity was influenced by the turbulent velocity and had direct effects on the vaporization flux. Among the turbulence parameters, increase in turbulent kinetic energy resulted in faster vaporization of cryogenic liquid through enhanced mixing, whereas variations in the eddy dissipation rate had weak dependence on vaporization. Additionally, the initial height of cryogenic liquid was also found to strongly affect the vaporization mass flux.     

液化天然气在水面地面扩散对比研究

主要利用FLACS软件,对水陆两处不同的界面下,LNG在同等气象条件下的扩散情况做了相关研究,利用FLACS软件前置处理器CASD对建立简单模型,拟定计算方案进行模拟仿真,对模拟结果进行整理分析后,得到水陆两个不同扩散层面液化天然气气液两相扩散结果与最大扩散距离。处理数据得到LNG气液两相扩散距离,对比结果可知LNG在水面蒸发速率大于地面蒸发速率且扩散距离远远大于地面扩散距离,可燃区域覆盖面更为宽广,说明水面扩散速率大于地面扩散速率。     

基于CFD的半封闭空间内LNG泄漏后果研究

为定量分析半封闭空间内液化天然气（LNG）泄漏后果,利用计算流体力学（CFD）软件FLUENT,对不同条件下的“冷箱”内LNG泄漏后扩散与爆炸过程进行了模拟。结果表明:无论通风与否,危险区域（甲烷体积分数为5%~15%）一直存在,但通风时该区域比无通风时小; LNG泄漏后会导致箱内温度降低,且泄漏量越大温度下降越低,但通风在一定程度上能减小温降; 当危险区域最大时,发生爆炸产生的超压最大,对于泄漏量小的情况,通风能减小爆炸压力; 障碍物的存在会增大爆炸压力,研究中的最大爆炸超压为158 kPa,可对设备与人员造成严重危害,故在设计“冷箱”时须提出相应的强度要求。研究方法与结果对于与“冷箱”类似的受限空间安全设计与风险评估有指导意义。     

Modeling of variations in nitrogen trichloride concentration over time in swimming pool water

In water, chlorine reacts with nitrogen-containing compounds to produce disinfection by-products such as nitrogen trichloride which induces ocular and respiratory irritations in swimming pool workers. This study proposes a model to predict variations in NCl₃ concentration over time in a traditional indoor swimming pool as a function of its operating parameters and attendance. The model was developed taking into consideration the reaction mechanisms, thermodynamic equilibria, physico-chemical properties, and transfer mechanisms occurring at the pool's surface. This model was validated through a robust series of experiments over two days and two nights in a real swimming pool. The model was found to satisfactorily predict variations over time in the concentrations of the chemical species investigated, including nitrogen trichloride. The work presented constitutes a first step to extend the model at different swimming pools. This approach may also be used to study the influence of the main operating parameters and to evaluate the impact of setting up water treatment systems on nitrogen trichloride concentration.     

Numerical simulation of small-scale pool fires of LNG

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) has been largely indicated as a promising alternative solution for the transportation and storage of natural gas. In the case of accidental release on the ground, a pool fire scenario may occur. Despite the relevance of this accident, due to its likelihood and potential to trigger domino effects, accurate analyses addressing the characterization of pool fires of LNG are still missing.In this work, the fire dynamic simulator (FDS) has been adopted for the evaluation of the effects of the released amount of fuel and its composition (methane, ethane, and propane), on the thermal and chemical properties of small-scale LNG pool fire. More specifically, the heat release rate, the burning rate, the flame height, and thermal radiation, at different initial conditions, have been evaluated for pool having diameter smaller than 10 m. Safety distances have been calculated for all the investigated conditions, as well.Results have also been compared with data and correlations retrieved from the current literature. The equation of Thomas seems to work properly for the definition of the height over diameter ratio of the LNG pool fire for all the mixture and the investigated diameters.The addition of ethane and propane significantly affects the obtained results, especially in terms of radiative thermal radiation peaks, thus indicating the inadequacy of the commonly adopted assumption of pure methane as single, surrogate species for the LNG mixture.     

大型LNG储罐防火间距分析

国内LNG接收站产业发展日益壮大,LNG储罐的规模也随之呈现大型化的趋势,其带来对周边储罐的安全问题成为关注的焦点.针对大型LNG储罐防火间距的分析,依据国际广泛接受的美国NFPA 59A-2009和欧洲EN1473-2007标准,分别采用事故后果模拟手段和危险性评估方法确定储罐防火间距,事故场景分别考虑了罐顶池火灾和卸料管线发生直径50mm孔洞泄漏火灾.在此基础之上,对事故后果模拟得到的结果进行分析,明确储罐防火间距,从而为企业对LNG储罐区进行布局设计提供参考指导.     

基于FLACS的LNG船舶泄漏爆炸过程数值模拟研究

为研究大尺寸、全场景下LNG船舶卸货作业过程中的泄漏爆炸风险,构建某LNG接收站及其周边20.5 km2的区域场景模型,采用FLACS软件数值模拟LNG泄漏扩散、气云爆炸的演化过程.结果表明:LNG从卸料臂处以满输速率持续泄漏5 min,最大液池面积17 047 m2,最大汽化速率350 kg/m3,遇点火源发生气云爆...