Fire and Explosion Consequence Analysis of Occupied Buildings in an LPG Storage Facility in Southern Nigeria

Abstract

The purpose of this work was to carry out an evaluation of occupied buildings from the devastating impact of an explosion in a Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) bulk storage facility with the intention to provide information on blast requirements of the buildings and make layout modification as needed using the consequence-based approach. The simulation was done using DNV’s Process Hazard Analysis Software Tool (PHAST) and the process data were obtained from a process plant located in the Niger-Delta region of Nigeria. Three major scenarios; catastrophic rupture, full bore rupture was considered for a 6-inch pipe and fixed duration release of the stored LPG and propane gas using the TNO multi-energy method to determine the Maximum Credible Event on the occupied buildings within the facility From the study, the catastrophic rupture of LPG vessel #18 at 2/F weather category gave the worst impact with an overpressure effect of 0.7barg at a hazard distance of 166.959m. The thermal radiation intensity of 37.5KW/m2 due to Jet fire from the fixed duration release of Propane vessel #22 at 2/F weather category was found to produce the greatest consequence/impact at a hazard distance of 180.72m. The results from this work show that most of the occupied buildings within the location are in the vicinity of the effect zone of both explosion overpressure and Jet fire thermal radiation.