Open Access
ARTICLE
Numerical Study on the Gas Leakage and Dispersion at the Street Intersection of a Building Group
Weitao Zhang1, 2, Mengqi Liu3, Kaiyi Wang4, Fan Zhang2, Lei Hou1, *
1 National Engineering Laboratory for Pipeline Safety, Beijing Key Laboratory of Urban Oil and Gas
Distribution Technology, China University of Petroleum, Beijing, 102249, China.
2 CangHaiBang Business Unit, Supply Chain Business Group, Sinochem Energy High-Tech Co., Ltd.,
Beijing, 100094, China.
3 Sinopec Economics & Development Research Institute, Beijing, 100029, China.
4 College of Arts and Science, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
* Corresponding Author: Lei Hou. Email: .
(This article belongs to this Special Issue: Advances in Modeling and Simulation of Complex Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow)
Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences 2020, 123(3), 1247-1266. https://doi.org/10.32604/cmes.2020.09297
Received 30 November 2019; Accepted 11 February 2020; Issue published 28 May 2020
Abstract
Accidents involving natural gas leakage and dispersion pose a significant
threat to human life and property. This threat is especially relevant at the street
intersection at which dense buildings, heavy traffic flow, and complex underground pipe
networks meet. Scholars have conducted numerous studies on gas leakage and dispersion,
but investigations of natural gas leakage and dispersion at the street intersection of a
building group are not in-depth. In this paper, we presented a three-dimensional (3D)
physical model based on the Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) methodology to study
the natural gas leakage and dispersion at the street intersection of a building group. We
validated the CFD methodology applied in the research based on the data from the field
tests and wind tunnel experiments. Then, we simulated and analyzed the pressure, wind,
and concentration of natural gas dispersion at the street intersection. The simulation
results showed that vortex regions, low-pressure zones, and a building group effect could
cause a build-up of natural gas concentration under perpendicular wind direction
conditions. In addition, the area of hazardous region tended to increase first and then drop
with the dispersion height. In the case of this study, the maximum area of hazardous
region is 200 m
2 located in the height of 55 m, which is the middle plane in the
computational domain. The results in the paper can provide scientific references for the
safe operation and emergency-management decisions of municipal gas.
Keywords
Cite This Article
Zhang, W., Liu, M., Wang, K., Zhang, F., Hou, L. (2020). Numerical Study on the Gas Leakage and Dispersion at the Street Intersection of a Building Group.
CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, 123(3), 1247–1266.
Citations