Wind tunnel modeling of crude oil vapors from relief tank vents
- Cermak Peterka Petersen, Inc., Fort Collins, CO (United States)
- Atlantic Richfield Co., Plano, TX (United States)
- Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., Anchorage, AK (United States)
In 1970, the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company was formed to manage the design, construction, operation and maintenance of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. The 800 mile long pipeline carries crude oil from Prudhoe Bay on the North Slope to Port Valdez on Prince William Sound. Because of the flammable nature of the crude oil vapors being vented from the tanks, Alyeska wanted to determine the region surrounding the tanks within which the lower flammable limit (LFL) could be exceeded. Because numerical models cannot accurately model the flow near structures, especially for dense gases, wind tunnel modeling was conducted to provide more accurate distance to LFL estimates. The wind tunnel model simulations were also to be used to judge the effect of various modeling parameters, and to assist in possible future refinements to numerical models. Since wind tunnel modeling of dense gas plumes under light conditions also poses some difficult constraints upon wind tunnel scaling, various tests were conducted to evaluate the wind tunnel simulation method. Tests were conducted to evaluate the effect of Reynolds number, Peclet/Richardson number, distorted density scaling and atmospheric stability. This paper describes the project, wind tunnel scaling methods, experimental methods, concentration measurement results and distance to LFL estimates.
- OSTI ID:
- 422912
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-960127-; TRN: 97:002389
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 9. joint American Meteorological Society/Air and Waste Management Association conference on applications of air pollution meteorology, Atlanta, GA (United States), 28 Jan - 2 Feb 1996; Other Information: PBD: [1996]; Related Information: Is Part Of Ninth joint conference on applications of air pollution meteorology with A and WMA; PB: 672 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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