Premium
Predicting blast overpressures caused by vapor cloud explosions in the vicinity of control rooms
Author(s) -
Van Wingerden Kees,
Hansen Olav Roald,
Foisselon Pierre
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
process safety progress
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.378
H-Index - 40
eISSN - 1547-5913
pISSN - 1066-8527
DOI - 10.1002/prs.680180105
Subject(s) - computational fluid dynamics , simple (philosophy) , engineering , aerospace engineering , environmental science , computer science , epistemology , philosophy
When considering the consequences of gas explosions in petro‐chemical installutions simple methods are used such as TNT‐equivalenc methods and the Multi‐Energy method. These methods howewr, do not take into account directional effects, focusing effects, factors related to the source of the explosion (initial strength, shape) and reflections. FLACS, a 3‐D CFD tool, allows for all factors mentioned including focusing on effects and reflections near buildings. A comparison of the CFD‐method including the two traditional prediction methods for a practical case demonstrates the application areas of the FLACS method as well as the limitations of the traditional methods.