Analysis of crater formation in buried NG pipelines: A survey based on past accidents and evaluation of domino effect

The formation of a crater by the abrupt and catastrophic rupture of a high-pressure pipeline can be highly relevant, especially when the crater uncovers other pipelines, which could undergo a domino effect with a significant increase of the consequences on people or on the environment. However, this scenario has been only partially studied in the literature. To assess the influence of the pipeline parameters on the dimensions of the resulting crater, a statistical analysis of accidental ruptures of buried natural gas pipelines that have involved the formation of a crater was carried out. Mathematical expressions are proposed to describe the proportionality relationships found, which can be very useful to support adequate separation distances in the design and construction of parallel corridors of pipelines after appropriate escalating effects are considered. Finally, detailed event trees were developed to calculate the probability of occurrence of the final outcomes, as well as the identified domino sequences, based on a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the data. The study of these accident scenarios, based on actual cases, represents a useful and needed advance in risk analysis of natural gas transportation through pipelines.     

System dynamics research of non-adaptive evacuation psychology in toxic gas leakage emergencies of chemical park

Chemical industry park plays an important role in optimizing the allocation of resources, but an emergency may make a great deal of personnel casualty and property loss. Many casualties are not the result of accidents but are caused by extreme behavior because of the non-adaptive psychology of the evacuees. Panic is one of the non-adaptive psychological behaviors during an evacuation, which is influenced by a variety of factors. Based on the consideration of the disaster environment and the evolution of crowd emotion, a system dynamics model of panic spread is established by using Anylogic software, and simulation experiments are carried out for different disaster severity, visibility, and groups. The results show that the number of people with severe panic increase when visibility decreases or disaster diffuses. Besides, the appropriate proportion of groups can effectively reduce the cooling time of crowd and ease the fears. However, continue to increase the number of groups has no significant effect on the panic control. This work can provide some reasonable guidance for regional emergency evacuation in chemical park.     

Effects of EGR on performance and emissions of a diesel engine fuelled with balanites aegyptiaca/diesel blends

In this study, balanites Aegyptiaca (L.) Del biodiesel was blended in proportions of 10% and 20% on the volume basis with diesel fuel and tested in a single cylinder, VCR diesel engine under measured load conditions with varied EGR rates (0, 10 and 20%). The results showed that B10 and B20 blends shown a significant reduction rate in terms of NO_x emissions that were familiar with biodiesel blends. At peak load conditions, BTE increased slightly for test fuel blends compared with pure diesel fuel while the BSFC rate and EGT suffered from increasing and decreasing nature with respect to blending percentage. From the emissions point of view, with the increase in blends percentage, a significant reduction rate is observed in terms of CO and HC concentrations (up to 12.34 and 17.5%, respectively) while NOx emissions decreased at peak load conditions (up to 24.34%). HC and CO emissions decreased with increase in blends percentage. However, lower levels of NO_x and EGT (up to 21.37 and 8.47%, respectively) and the average increase in terms of BTE and BSFC (up to 2.83 and 2.9%, respectively) can be realised with B20 test fuel blend under 20% EGR rate.     

钻屑法测定煤层H_2S含量

为了测定煤层硫化氢(H2S)含量,防治矿井H2S涌出,提出一种通过钻屑法测定煤层H2S含量的方法。在未受采动影响的新鲜煤壁,采用钻屑法取样,通过测定煤样H2S解吸量、取样过程损失量和H2S残存量确定煤层H2S含量。根据溶于水中H2S的p H值和色谱分析解吸气体中H2S体积分数,确定H2S解吸量;根据煤样解吸规律和气样H2S体积分数,确定H2S损失量;根据色谱分析残存气体中H2S体积分数,确定其残存量。用此方法,对山西某矿H2S涌出煤层进行现场和实验室测定。研究表明,该矿H2S含量为(4.465~6.701)×10-3m3/t。钻屑法测定煤层H2S含量是可行的,可以为矿井H2S治理提供基础数据。     

高瓦斯工作面隅角柔性气囊安全封堵研究

为解决高瓦斯工作面隅角封堵工人劳动强度大、效率低,封堵效果不佳易造成隅角瓦斯浓度超限等安全问题,研发设计了矿用阻燃内外胆组合结构的轻型柔性隅角封堵气囊,并相应提出了单体液压支柱配合轻型柔性气囊的隅角封堵新方法。通过实验室测试实验和现场工业性试验表明:选用PVC材料和双抗涂覆布材料的气囊质量小、轻便实用,大幅降低了工人的劳动强度,提高了工作效率,减小了传统封堵方式编织袋装碎煤造成的遗煤浪费;该气囊可适应大变形(变形率可达42.5%)、耐冲击(2×104J的冲击能量不破坏),抗撕扯能力强,且具有阻燃特性,重复使用率高,大大节约了隅角封堵的成本;使用气囊封堵后,采空区内瓦斯浓度显著增大,说明气囊封堵的密闭性增加,安全封堵效果十分明显。     

深孔预裂爆破对含坚硬顶板高瓦斯煤层的综合作用研究

为研究深孔预裂爆破技术在含坚硬顶板高瓦斯煤层开采中的应用,以顾桥矿1123(1)工作面坚硬顶板为研究对象,基于小挠度理论建立了坚硬顶板垮落力学模型,导出了初次来压步距计算式;综合考虑瓦斯抽采需要,对深孔预裂爆破孔进行了优化设计,并在工作面顶板中开展了现场试验研究。结果表明:在工作面推进至27.3m时出现垮落,爆破后钻孔瓦斯流量显著增加,部分提高至30倍以上,瓦斯抽采量提高了3.5倍,初采期间安全回采煤炭25万吨,实现了坚硬顶板控制和卸压增透双重作用。     

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.     

Emerging conservation challenges and prospects in an era of offshore hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation

Globally, extensive marine areas important for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem functioning are undergoing exploration and extraction of oil and natural gas resources. Such operations are expanding to previously inaccessible deep waters and other frontier regions, while conservation‐related legislation and planning is often lacking. Conservation challenges arising from offshore hydrocarbon development are wide‐ranging. These challenges include threats to ecosystems and marine species from oil spills, negative impacts on native biodiversity from invasive species colonizing drilling infrastructure, and increased political conflicts that can delay conservation actions. With mounting offshore operations, conservationists need to urgently consider some possible opportunities that could be leveraged for conservation. Leveraging options, as part of multi‐billion dollar marine hydrocarbon operations, include the use of facilities and costly equipment of the deep and ultra‐deep hydrocarbon industry for deep‐sea conservation research and monitoring and establishing new conservation research, practice, and monitoring funds and environmental offsetting schemes. The conservation community, including conservation scientists, should become more involved in the earliest planning and exploration phases and remain involved throughout the operations so as to influence decision making and promote continuous monitoring of biodiversity and ecosystems. A prompt response by conservation professionals to offshore oil and gas developments can mitigate impacts of future decisions and actions of the industry and governments. New environmental decision support tools can be used to explicitly incorporate the impacts of hydrocarbon operations on biodiversity into marine spatial and conservation plans and thus allow for optimum trade‐offs among multiple objectives, costs, and risks.     

瓦斯压力对卸荷原煤力学特性及能量特征的影响

运用自主研制的含瓦斯煤热流固耦合三轴伺服渗流试验装置,以原煤煤样作为研究对象,进行了含瓦斯煤固定轴向压力、卸围压的渗流试验,研究了卸围压过程中瓦斯压力对煤样力学特性和能量特征的影响。结果表明:在轴压加载阶段,煤样的变形模量基本不变,泊松比逐渐减小;在定轴压卸围压阶段,煤样的变形模量先小幅度增加,然后逐渐减小,泊松比则逐渐增大。瓦斯压力越高,煤样的承载能力越低,煤样发生破坏时相应的轴向应变和围压卸荷量百分比越小,而煤样破坏时的径向变形和扩容量越大。各应变围压柔量Δεi与瓦斯压力呈线性关系且线性相关性良好。随瓦斯压力升高,轴向应变的围压敏感性降低,径向应变和体积应变的围压敏感性显著升高。随瓦斯压力升高,煤样发生破坏时存储的弹性应变能Ue减小,而总能量U、耗散能Ud和耗散能比例Ud/U都增大。     

PVC电缆火灾早期特征气体的组成分析和传感器探测

利用气体传感器对电缆绝缘过热释放的气体进行监测有望实现电气火灾早期预警,目前该技术的发展由于特征气体未得到确认而受到限制。分析了聚氯乙烯(PVC)电缆绝缘层在不同温度下释放的气体组成,并对其主要成分进行传感器测试。TG-IR和GC-MS分析表明PVC电缆绝缘层在200℃前已出现微小失重,释放出以邻苯二甲酸二辛酯(DOP)等塑化剂为主的气体。气敏测试中,商用半导体气体传感器对DOP和电缆蒸气产生较好、相似的响应性能。因此,DOP可以作为PVC电缆火灾早期的特征气体。