The Safety Distance Study Of The LPG Storage Field Based On The Numerical Simulation Of Vapor Cloud Explosion

Abstract: The safety distance among the petrochemical units is usually based on the fireproof distance, and rarely takes the impacts of the explosion into account. As to the zones which is high-risk of explosion, such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) storage field, it is quite necessary to involve the effects of the explosive blast wave when design the safety distance . In this paper, the computational fluid dynamics tool named AutoReaGas is used to simulate the vapor cloud explosion (VCE) in the LPG storage field. The influences of the obstacles, which consist of fire dike, pipelines, storage structure, on the vapor cloud explosion of the LPG have been analyzed, and the probability analyses are conducted to the devices and human vulnerability. On basis of the analyses, the safety distance in the LPG storage field has been discussed combined with the fireproof distance. The results show that in the high danger zones of VCE, the safety distance based only on the fire prevention has not meet the inherent safety goal of the plant layout. The reliable numerical simulation is an effective method to analyze the explosion hazards and can offer persuasive data to the appropriate safety distance design between the units. The method that integrates the fire hazards with the explosion influences to determine the safety distance can contribute to the safety design and layout optimization, thus improves  the inherent safety level of the plants to a large extent.

Key word: Safety distance; Vapor Cloud Explosion; Numerical simulation; Layout optimization