Gas leakage consequence modeling for buried gas pipelines

Abstract

One of conservation transfer methods for such widely-used gases as natural gas and hydrogen is buried pipelines. Safety of these pipelines is of great importance due to potential risks posed by inefficiencies of the pipelines. Therefore, an accurate understanding of release and movement characteristics of the leaked gas, i.e. distribution and speed within soil, the release to the ground surface, the movement of hydrogen gas through the ground, gas underground diffusion, gas dispersion in atmosphere, and following consequences, are very important in order to determine underground dispersion risks. In the present study, consequences of gas leakage within soil were evaluated in two sub-models, i.e. near-field and far-field, and a comprehensive model was proposed in order to ensure safety of buried gas supply pipelines. Near-field model which is related to soil and ground and its output is the gas released at different points and times from ground surface and it was adopted as input of far-field sub-model which is dispersion model in atmosphere or an open space under the surface. Validation of near-field sub-model was performed by the experimental data obtained by Okamoto et al. (2014) on full-scale hydrogen leakage and then, possible scenarios for far-field sub-model were determined.