On the CFD modelling of hydrogen dispersion at low-Reynolds number release in closed facility

Hydrogen release inside closed facilities could cause explosions with harmful consequences. Safety assessment should be performed in order to design prevention and mitigation measures in case of such an accident. A numerical study for helium (as hydrogen surrogate) accumulation inside a closed facility representative of a real-scale garage at low release rate is conducted. Due to the nature of the examined flow several turbulence modelling approaches (RANS and LES type) and the laminar approach were examined with the aim to evaluate their predictive capabilities in flows resulting from low-Reynolds number leaks. Best practice guidelines are followed in the simulations and the comparison of computational results with experimental data showed that RANS and LES approaches reproduced well the gas distribution inside the facility, while laminar approach predicted more enhanced stratification at the release phase. Statistical Performance Measures were used to evaluate the models and narrower acceptable ranges are suggested for releases in indoor configurations compared to open environments.

GIANNISSI Stella;  TOLIAS Ilias;  MELIDEO Daniele;  BARALDI Daniele;  SHENTSOV Volodymir;  MAKAROV Dmitriy;  MOLKOV Vladimir;  VENETSANOS Alexander; 

2021-09-07

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

JRC121594

0360-3199 (online),   

https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0360319920334984,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC121594,   

10.1016/j.ijhydene.2020.09.078 (online),