Simulation and safety analysis of the leakage of liquefied hydrogen from high-pressure container

Abstract

In this paper, the leakage and diffusion of liquefied hydrogen which is stored in high-pressure container were investigated and the safety arrangement in cosmodrome focused on the effects of external flow on the above process was proposed. The phase transition process of leakage of liquefied hydrogen at the initial stage was first analyzed by considering the motion of single particle and particle group. Furthermore, the rule of leakage and diffusion of liquefied hydrogen under different conditions was thoroughly examined by CFD modelling. Through this work, the leakage pressure, leakage location, external air-flow direction and external air-flow velocity are found to have great effects on the diffusion of leaking hydrogen. By increasing the leakage pressure and putting leakage port closer to ground, the diffusion and dilution of leaking hydrogen would be strongly expedited to spread much further away. By adopting upper air blow and raising the external air speed, the concentration can be fairly reduced.