(141b) Forced Dispersion Analysis of LNG Vapor Mitigation Using Fire Dynamic Simulator

The new LNG markets, including the emerging liquefaction facilities in North America, have shown the potential to add significance to the current LNG industry [1]. With the expected demand of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to double by year 2020 world-wide, the mitigation techniques for an LNG spill emergency require further investigation to provide accurate information in evaluating the consequences of an LNG spill and potential impact on the public safety and security [2, 3]. Experimental and theoretical studies on LNG forced mitigation have been conducted at the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center (MKOPSC) [4]. The Fire Dynamic Simulator (FDS) is an open source computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of fire-driven fluid flow developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to assist in the investigation of industrial incidents or research [5].This work applies the FDS to set up and simulate LNG forced dispersion using a water spray application. A comparison study with a previous methodology has been conducted and potential application of FDS in the LNG safety research is discussed.

1. IGU, World LNG Report - 2011; International Gas Union: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2011.

2. IEA, World Energy Outlook 2011: Are we entering a golden age of gas? ; IEA: Paris, France, 2011.

3. USGAO, Public Safety Consequences of a Terrorist Attack on a Tanker Carrying Liquefied Natural Gas Need Clarification (Maritime Security GAO-07-316), United States Government Accountability Office. Washington, D.C., 2007.

4. Kim, B.K., Ng, D., Mentzer, R.A., Mannan, M.S. Modeling of water-spray application in the forced dispersion of LNG vapor cloud using a combined eulerian-lagrangian approach. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2012, 51, 13803−13814.

5. McGrattan, K.E., Forney, G., Fire Dynamincs Simulator (Version 4) User's Guide, NIST Special Publication 1019, NIST, Editor.2004.