Rethinking “BLEVE explosion” after liquid hydrogen storage tank rupture in a fire

Donatella Cirrone; Dmitriy Makarov; Vladimir Molkov

doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2022.09.114

Rethinking “BLEVE explosion” after liquid hydrogen storage tank rupture in a fire

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Abstract

The underlying physical mechanisms leading to the generation of blast waves after liquid hydrogen (LH2) storage tank rupture in a fire are not yet fully understood. This makes it difficult to develop predictive models and validate them against a very limited number of experiments. This study aims at the development of a CFD model able to predict maximum pressure in the blast wave after the LH2 storage tank rupture in a fire. The performed critical review of previous works and the thorough numerical analysis of BMW experiments (LH2 storage pressure in the range 2.0–11.3 bar abs) allowed us to conclude that the maximum pressure in the blast wave is generated by gaseous phase starting shock enhanced by combustion reaction of hydrogen at the contact surface with heated by the shock air. The boiling liquid expanding vapour explosion (BLEVE) pressure peak follows the gaseous phase blast and is smaller in amplitude. The CFD model validated recently against high-pressure hydrogen storage tank rupture in fire experiments is essentially updated in this study to account for cryogenic conditions of LH2 storage. The simulation results provided insight into the blast wave and combustion dynamics, demonstrating that combustion at the contact surface contributes significantly to the generated blast wave, increasing the overpressure at 3 m from the tank up to 5 times. The developed CFD model can be used as a contemporary tool for hydrogen safety engineering, e.g. for assessment of hazard distances from LH2 storage.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	8716-8730
Number of pages	15
Journal	International Journal of Hydrogen Energy
Volume	48
Issue number	23
Early online date	15 Dec 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2022.09.114
Publication status	Published (in print/issue) - 15 Mar 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research has received funding from the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertaking (now Clean Hydrogen Partnership) under grant agreement No 779613 (PRESLHY). The JU receives support from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and the United Kingdom, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Norway, Switzerland. The authors would like to acknowledge EPSRC for funding the project Kelvin-2 “Tier 2 High-Performance Computing Services” (EP/T022175/1) and EPSRC SUPERGEN H2FC Hub (EP/J016454/1, EP/P024807/1), and Innovate UK for funding the project “Northern Ireland Green Seas” (ID: 397841).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s)

Funding

Funding Information: This research has received funding from the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertaking (now Clean Hydrogen Partnership) under grant agreement No 779613 (PRESLHY). The JU receives support from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and the United Kingdom, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Norway, Switzerland. The authors would like to acknowledge EPSRC for funding the project Kelvin-2 “Tier 2 High-Performance Computing Services” (EP/T022175/1) and EPSRC SUPERGEN H2FC Hub (EP/J016454/1, EP/P024807/1), and Innovate UK for funding the project “Northern Ireland Green Seas” (ID: 397841). Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s)

UN SDGs

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

SDG 7 Affordable and Clean Energy
SDG 13 Climate Action

Keywords

Liquid hydrogen storage
Tank rupture in fire
Blast wave
CFD model
Validation
BLEVE

Access to Document

10.1016/j.ijhydene.2022.09.114Licence: CC BY

1-s2.0-S0360319922042550-mainFinal published version, 2.16 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Rethinking “BLEVE explosion” after liquid hydrogen storage tank rupture in a fire",

abstract = "The underlying physical mechanisms leading to the generation of blast waves after liquid hydrogen (LH2) storage tank rupture in a fire are not yet fully understood. This makes it difficult to develop predictive models and validate them against a very limited number of experiments. This study aims at the development of a CFD model able to predict maximum pressure in the blast wave after the LH2 storage tank rupture in a fire. The performed critical review of previous works and the thorough numerical analysis of BMW experiments (LH2 storage pressure in the range 2.0–11.3 bar abs) allowed us to conclude that the maximum pressure in the blast wave is generated by gaseous phase starting shock enhanced by combustion reaction of hydrogen at the contact surface with heated by the shock air. The boiling liquid expanding vapour explosion (BLEVE) pressure peak follows the gaseous phase blast and is smaller in amplitude. The CFD model validated recently against high-pressure hydrogen storage tank rupture in fire experiments is essentially updated in this study to account for cryogenic conditions of LH2 storage. The simulation results provided insight into the blast wave and combustion dynamics, demonstrating that combustion at the contact surface contributes significantly to the generated blast wave, increasing the overpressure at 3 m from the tank up to 5 times. The developed CFD model can be used as a contemporary tool for hydrogen safety engineering, e.g. for assessment of hazard distances from LH2 storage.",

keywords = "Liquid hydrogen storage, Tank rupture in fire, Blast wave, CFD model, Validation, BLEVE",

author = "Donatella Cirrone and Dmitriy Makarov and Vladimir Molkov",

note = "Funding Information: This research has received funding from the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertaking (now Clean Hydrogen Partnership) under grant agreement No 779613 (PRESLHY). The JU receives support from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and the United Kingdom, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Norway, Switzerland. The authors would like to acknowledge EPSRC for funding the project Kelvin-2 “Tier 2 High-Performance Computing Services” (EP/T022175/1) and EPSRC SUPERGEN H2FC Hub (EP/J016454/1, EP/P024807/1), and Innovate UK for funding the project “Northern Ireland Green Seas” (ID: 397841). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 The Author(s)",

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AU - Cirrone, Donatella

AU - Makarov, Dmitriy

AU - Molkov, Vladimir

N1 - Funding Information: This research has received funding from the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertaking (now Clean Hydrogen Partnership) under grant agreement No 779613 (PRESLHY). The JU receives support from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and the United Kingdom, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Norway, Switzerland. The authors would like to acknowledge EPSRC for funding the project Kelvin-2 “Tier 2 High-Performance Computing Services” (EP/T022175/1) and EPSRC SUPERGEN H2FC Hub (EP/J016454/1, EP/P024807/1), and Innovate UK for funding the project “Northern Ireland Green Seas” (ID: 397841). Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s)

PY - 2023/3/15

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N2 - The underlying physical mechanisms leading to the generation of blast waves after liquid hydrogen (LH2) storage tank rupture in a fire are not yet fully understood. This makes it difficult to develop predictive models and validate them against a very limited number of experiments. This study aims at the development of a CFD model able to predict maximum pressure in the blast wave after the LH2 storage tank rupture in a fire. The performed critical review of previous works and the thorough numerical analysis of BMW experiments (LH2 storage pressure in the range 2.0–11.3 bar abs) allowed us to conclude that the maximum pressure in the blast wave is generated by gaseous phase starting shock enhanced by combustion reaction of hydrogen at the contact surface with heated by the shock air. The boiling liquid expanding vapour explosion (BLEVE) pressure peak follows the gaseous phase blast and is smaller in amplitude. The CFD model validated recently against high-pressure hydrogen storage tank rupture in fire experiments is essentially updated in this study to account for cryogenic conditions of LH2 storage. The simulation results provided insight into the blast wave and combustion dynamics, demonstrating that combustion at the contact surface contributes significantly to the generated blast wave, increasing the overpressure at 3 m from the tank up to 5 times. The developed CFD model can be used as a contemporary tool for hydrogen safety engineering, e.g. for assessment of hazard distances from LH2 storage.

AB - The underlying physical mechanisms leading to the generation of blast waves after liquid hydrogen (LH2) storage tank rupture in a fire are not yet fully understood. This makes it difficult to develop predictive models and validate them against a very limited number of experiments. This study aims at the development of a CFD model able to predict maximum pressure in the blast wave after the LH2 storage tank rupture in a fire. The performed critical review of previous works and the thorough numerical analysis of BMW experiments (LH2 storage pressure in the range 2.0–11.3 bar abs) allowed us to conclude that the maximum pressure in the blast wave is generated by gaseous phase starting shock enhanced by combustion reaction of hydrogen at the contact surface with heated by the shock air. The boiling liquid expanding vapour explosion (BLEVE) pressure peak follows the gaseous phase blast and is smaller in amplitude. The CFD model validated recently against high-pressure hydrogen storage tank rupture in fire experiments is essentially updated in this study to account for cryogenic conditions of LH2 storage. The simulation results provided insight into the blast wave and combustion dynamics, demonstrating that combustion at the contact surface contributes significantly to the generated blast wave, increasing the overpressure at 3 m from the tank up to 5 times. The developed CFD model can be used as a contemporary tool for hydrogen safety engineering, e.g. for assessment of hazard distances from LH2 storage.

KW - Liquid hydrogen storage

KW - Tank rupture in fire

KW - Blast wave

KW - CFD model

KW - Validation

KW - BLEVE

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DO - 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2022.09.114

M3 - Article

SN - 0360-3199

VL - 48

SP - 8716

EP - 8730

JO - International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

JF - International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

IS - 23

ER -

Rethinking “BLEVE explosion” after liquid hydrogen storage tank rupture in a fire

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

Access to Document

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