Start
Apr 11, 2012 - 16:00
End
Apr 11, 2012 - 17:00
Venue
Room 118 (Creativity Hall) Ground Floor Chemical Engineering Department
Event Type
Speaker
Dr. Prankul Middha Senior Engineer GexCon Bergen Norway
Title
The use of CFD for explosion safety studies on process facilities
Abstract: There is a strong focus on fire and explosion safety on facilities handling highly flammable gases and liquids. High equipment density coupled with storage under pressure and many potential leakage and ignition sources contribute to a high explosion risk. Serious accidents that have occurred both offshore and onshore in the past demonstrate the necessity of this strong emphasis on safety. The seminar starts by briefly discussing the combustion mechanisms important during explosions and the factors affecting these mechanisms. The necessity of using CFD for prediction of the consequences of explosions occurring in a process facility is then established. The models included in CFD tool FLACS that has been specifically developed for this purpose are described. Extensive modelling and validation work has recently been carried out to make FLACS a more reliable tool for hydrogen safety applications. This is driven by the expectation that hydrogen can become an important energy carrier in the future. In general hydrogen is much more explosive than e.g. gasoline. But hydrogen also has some positive qualities such as very large buoyancy that can minimize the risk of a spill. It is therefore important to develop good tools for calculating the consequences of possible accidents. The study treats release dispersion combustion and explosion of hydrogen and development of risk analysis methods. Some examples and approaches of how this tool is applied for performing explosion safety assessments for process facilities are also presented.Bio-sketch: Dr. Prankul Middha is a Senior Engineer working in the GexCon Software and R&D departments. He has worked at GexCon since 2005 and is currently the head of training for the commercial CFD software FLACS that is developed at GexCon and the global course coordinator. His work in the R&D department focuses on improvement of combustion models within FLACS with emphasis on validation transition to detonation and new energy. He completed his Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and graduate degree in Combustion from University of Delaware in USA. He has a PhD specializing in the area of hydrogen safety and explosion modelling. He has almost 20 papers in peer-reviewed international journals and several presentations in international conferences.