Experiment and simulation research of evolution process for LNG leakage and diffusion

Abstract The frequent occurrence of LNG leakage accidents has caused serious economic loss and environmental damage. Experiments and simulations can be combined to obtain the transient process of LNG leakage and diffusion. This paper analyzed LNG leakage diffusion rules with experiment results obtained by depleting 1.4t LNG. The vapor clouds and LNG concentration are measured, which can be a comparison with the simulation results. Computational fluid dynamics and gas diffusion theory were chosen as the theoretical basis, simulating the transient process of LNG gasification to obtain the diffusion concentration rules. The simulation of LNG diffusion is divided into two parts: LNG leakage at the source and atmospheric diffusion. The maximum concentration of methane in the experiment was 4.1%, and the maximum concentration in the simulation was 4.6%. The results show good agreement of the deviation statistics, which fall in the standard recommendation value range. Then we make a prediction of the dangerous concentration area and the flammability hazard zone of LNG leakage accident. The simulation results show that the range of the lower wind direction danger area firstly increases and then decreases, and the maximum distance of IDLH increases firstly and arrived at the peak of 52  m at 300s.