Аssessment of excess pressure during accidents at oil refineries

Abstract

Аssessed the excess explosion pressure during an accident on oil tanks. In the studies, three cases of accidents were considered: local depressurization of the oil tank, full depressurization of the oil tank without the formation of a breakthrough wave and full depressurization with the formation of a breakthrough wave of the oil. The study was conducted for tanks with a volume of 10.000 m³. The paper considers a mathematical model of the overpressure of the explosion of vapors evaporated from a oil spill in the event of these accidents. According to this mathematical model, graphs of the dependence of excess explosion pressure on the radius were built. From the analysis of these graphs, numerical values of the radii of buildings damage degreewere determined . In case of full depressurization of the oil tank with the formation of a breakthrough wave, the radii of buildings damage degreewill be significantly larger than in the case of full depressurization without the formation of a breakthrough wave, which is due to a significant increase in the area of evaporation of the oil. It is determined that the presence of a serviceable dike can significantly reduce the consequences of accidents that can occur when damaged oil tanks. The radii on which a person will suffer damage of various degrees of complexity from the explosion of oil product vapors during their spill as a result of an accident on oil tanks are determined. It was established that for the case of local and full depressurization of a tank with an oil product without the formation of a breakthrough wave, a person will not receive too severe affections from a shock wave. In this case, for the case of full depressurization of the oil tank with the formation of a breakthrough wave, this distance will be at least 535 meters. The obtained results allow to assess the consequences of accidents on oil tanks and can be used to determine the distances of personnel and their special protective clothing.