Computational Risk Analysis of Propane Releases in Maintenance Facilities

Technical Report · Mon Nov 01 04:00:00 EDT 2021

OSTI ID:1829571

Jordan, Cyrus J. ^[1]; Blaylock, Myra L. ^[2]; Hecht, Ethan S. ^[2]

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1. North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States)
2. Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), Albuquerque, NM, and Livermore, CA (United States)

Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is a viable, cleaner alternative to traditional diesel fuel used in busses and other heavy-duty vehicles and could play a role in helping the US meet its lower emission goals. While the LPG industry has focused efforts on developing vehicles and fueling infrastructure, we must also establish safe parameters for maintenance facilities which are servicing LPG fueled vehicles. Current safety standards aid in the design of maintenance facilities, but additional quantitative analysis is needed to prove safeguards are adequate and suggest improvements where needed. In this report we aim to quantify the amount of flammable mass associated with propane releases from vehicle mounted fuel vessels within enclosed garages. Furthermore, we seek to qualify harm mitigation with variable ventilations and facility layout. To accomplish this we leverage validated computational resources at Sandia National Laboratories to simulate various release scenarios representative of real world vehicles and maintenance facilities. Flow solvers are used to predict the dynamics of fuel systems as well as the evolution of propane during release events. From our simulated results we observe that both inflow and outflow ventilation locations play a critical role in reducing flammable cloud size and potential overpressure values during a possible combustion event.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Transportation Office. Vehicle Technologies Office
• DOE Contract Number: NA0003525
• OSTI ID: 1829571
• Report Number(s): SAND--2021-14068; 701429
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

03 NATURAL GAS
33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS