Hydrogen Safety by Design: Exclusion of Flame Blow-Out from a TPRD

Mina Kazemi; Sile Brennan; Vladimir Molkov

doi:10.3390/hydrogen5020016

Hydrogen Safety by Design: Exclusion of Flame Blow-Out from a TPRD

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

9 Citations (Scopus)

81 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Onboard hydrogen storage tanks are currently fitted with thermally activated pressure relief devices (TPRDs), enabling hydrogen to blowdown in the event of fire. For release diameters below the critical diameter, the flame from the TPRD may blow-out during a pressure drop. Flame blow-outs pose a safety concern for an indoor or covered environment, e.g., a garage or carpark, where hydrogen can accumulate and deflagrate. This study describes the application of a validated computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model to simulate the dynamic flame behaviour from a TPRD designed to exclude its blow-out. The dynamic behaviour replicates a real scenario. Flame behaviour during tank blowdown through two TPRDs with different nozzle geometries is presented. Simulations confirm flame blow-out for a single-diameter TPRD of 0.5 mm during tank blowdown, while the double-diameter nozzle successfully excludes flame blow-out. The pressure at which the flame blow-out process is initiated during blowdown through a single-diameter nozzle was predicted.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	280-292
Number of pages	13
Journal	Hydrogen
Volume	5
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/hydrogen5020016
Publication status	Published (in print/issue) - 15 May 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 by the authors.

Data Availability Statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Funding

This research was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) of the UK for support through the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Sustainable Hydrogen “SusHy” grant number EP/S023909/1 and the Centre for Advanced Sustainable Energy (CASE) funded through the Department for the Economy Northern Ireland’s Green Innovation Challenge Fund and aims to transform the sustainable energy sector through business research. Simulations were performed using Tier 2 High-Performance Computing resources provided by the Northern Ireland High-Performance Computing (NI-HPC) facility grant number EP/T022175/1 “https://www.ni-hpc.ac.uk/Kelvin2 (accessed on 14 May 2023)”.

Funders	Funder number
Department of Education, Northern Ireland
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
EP/S023909/1
EP/T022175/1

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy
SDG 9 Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
SDG 13 Climate Action

Keywords

blowdown
lift-off
blow-out
TPRD
flame stability

Access to Document

10.3390/hydrogen5020016Licence: CC BY

hydrogen-05-00016Final published version, 3.88 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Hydrogen Safety by Design: Exclusion of Flame Blow-Out from a TPRD",

abstract = "Onboard hydrogen storage tanks are currently fitted with thermally activated pressure relief devices (TPRDs), enabling hydrogen to blowdown in the event of fire. For release diameters below the critical diameter, the flame from the TPRD may blow-out during a pressure drop. Flame blow-outs pose a safety concern for an indoor or covered environment, e.g., a garage or carpark, where hydrogen can accumulate and deflagrate. This study describes the application of a validated computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model to simulate the dynamic flame behaviour from a TPRD designed to exclude its blow-out. The dynamic behaviour replicates a real scenario. Flame behaviour during tank blowdown through two TPRDs with different nozzle geometries is presented. Simulations confirm flame blow-out for a single-diameter TPRD of 0.5 mm during tank blowdown, while the double-diameter nozzle successfully excludes flame blow-out. The pressure at which the flame blow-out process is initiated during blowdown through a single-diameter nozzle was predicted.",

keywords = "blowdown, lift-off, blow-out, TPRD, flame stability",

author = "Mina Kazemi and Sile Brennan and Vladimir Molkov",

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T1 - Hydrogen Safety by Design: Exclusion of Flame Blow-Out from a TPRD

AU - Kazemi, Mina

AU - Brennan, Sile

AU - Molkov, Vladimir

PY - 2024/5/15

Y1 - 2024/5/15

N2 - Onboard hydrogen storage tanks are currently fitted with thermally activated pressure relief devices (TPRDs), enabling hydrogen to blowdown in the event of fire. For release diameters below the critical diameter, the flame from the TPRD may blow-out during a pressure drop. Flame blow-outs pose a safety concern for an indoor or covered environment, e.g., a garage or carpark, where hydrogen can accumulate and deflagrate. This study describes the application of a validated computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model to simulate the dynamic flame behaviour from a TPRD designed to exclude its blow-out. The dynamic behaviour replicates a real scenario. Flame behaviour during tank blowdown through two TPRDs with different nozzle geometries is presented. Simulations confirm flame blow-out for a single-diameter TPRD of 0.5 mm during tank blowdown, while the double-diameter nozzle successfully excludes flame blow-out. The pressure at which the flame blow-out process is initiated during blowdown through a single-diameter nozzle was predicted.

AB - Onboard hydrogen storage tanks are currently fitted with thermally activated pressure relief devices (TPRDs), enabling hydrogen to blowdown in the event of fire. For release diameters below the critical diameter, the flame from the TPRD may blow-out during a pressure drop. Flame blow-outs pose a safety concern for an indoor or covered environment, e.g., a garage or carpark, where hydrogen can accumulate and deflagrate. This study describes the application of a validated computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model to simulate the dynamic flame behaviour from a TPRD designed to exclude its blow-out. The dynamic behaviour replicates a real scenario. Flame behaviour during tank blowdown through two TPRDs with different nozzle geometries is presented. Simulations confirm flame blow-out for a single-diameter TPRD of 0.5 mm during tank blowdown, while the double-diameter nozzle successfully excludes flame blow-out. The pressure at which the flame blow-out process is initiated during blowdown through a single-diameter nozzle was predicted.

KW - blowdown

KW - lift-off

KW - blow-out

KW - TPRD

KW - flame stability

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Hydrogen Safety by Design: Exclusion of Flame Blow-Out from a TPRD