Modelling Liquid Hydrogen BLEVEs: A Comparative Assessment with Hydrocarbon Fuels

Abstract

Hydrogen is one of the best candidates in replacing traditional hydrocarbon fuels to decrease environmental pollution and global warming. Its consumption is expected to grow in the forthcoming years. Hence its liquefaction becomes necessary to store and transport large amounts of this fuel. However, a liquid hydrogen (LH2) boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion (BLEVE) is a potential accident scenario for these technologies, despite the fact it may be considered as atypical. A BLEVE is a physical explosion resulting from the catastrophic rupture of a tank of a liquid at a temperature above its boiling point at atmospheric pressure. Its consequences are the pressure wave, the missiles, which are the tank debris thrown away by the explosion, and a fireball if the substance is flammable and an ignition source is present. The aim of this paper is to estimate the consequences associated with BLEVEs from LH2 storage and transport systems by means of integral models. Both ideal and real gas behavior models were considered to calculate the explosion overpressure. The physical models were employed to analyze the consequences of analogous fuel BLEVEs, in order to provide a comparative assessment of the results. BLEVE experimental results for LH2 are not available in literature yet. For this reason, the developed models will be validated during the SH2IFT project in which LH2 BLEVE experimental tests will be conducted.