Study of the Thermal Radiation Hazard from a Combustible Gas Fireball Resulting from a High-Pressure Gas Pipeline Accident

Abstract

With the rapid development of high-pressure combustible gas pipelines, it brings convenience and also buries potential safety hazards. This paper presents an in-depth exploration of the thermal radiation hazards of fireball accidents caused by leakage and provides a reference for the prevention and control of this type of accident and on-site rescue. Based on the basic principle of fluid mechanics and the calculation model of the leakage rate, a three-dimensional pipeline model was constructed by FDS software to simulate the fireballs with different positions of low, middle and high. The simulation shows that the ground temperature field of the low and middle fireballs is quite different from that of the high fireball, and the temperature level is: low position > middle position > high position. On this basis, the observation elevation angle is introduced to improve the classical fireball thermal radiation model formula, the model calculation value is compared with the numerical simulation value and the optimal threshold is determined by combining the thermal radiation flux criterion. The results show that the numerical simulation is basically consistent with the calculation results of the improved model. The smaller the observation elevation angle, the closer the target receives the thermal radiation flux to the optimal threshold and the calculated hazard range is more reliable.