Disaster evaluation of hydrogen explosion leakage from industrial-scale non-metallic pipeline

Abstract

This work is aimed at evaluating the disaster consequence of leaked hydrogen explosion from the industrial-scale non-metallic pipeline. The flame evolution and explosion overpressure are experimentally obtained. A standard k-ε turbulence model and a beta flame model is established to analyze the explosion overpressure generation. The results indicated that whether there is an external ignition source or not, the hydrogen explosion still occurs when the high-pressure hydrogen leaks from non-metal pipelines. The formation of three overpressure peaks could be attributed to the non-metallic pipeline rupture, leaked hydrogen explosion and sand soil spread. The explosion overpressure peaks continue to decrease with increasing monitoring point distance. The moving speed of explosion overpressure is between 349.34 m/s and 436.21 m/s. The leaked hydrogen concentration outside non-metallic pipeline could reach up to about 10% and the explosion overpressure generation is dependent on the concentration distribution.