Numerical Simulation of Emergency Release of Liquid Petroleum Gas on a Car Gas Station

LPG storage tanks may be seriously threatened by a fire coming from nearby fuels or by leakage appearance. The aim of the study was to prepare a three-dimensional model of LPG release on a car gas station under different environmental conditions. CFD simulations of liquid and gas phase release from a tank localized on a car gas station was performed. First, ALOHA software was applied to determine mass flow rate, while Ansys software was used to determine the shape and size of hazardous zone. To reflect real condition atmospheric stability classes were applied. It was observed that for classes A-D the hazardous zone was decreasing. While, for E and F class the range was increased. It was noticed that the location of the leakage affects the extent of the danger zone. For the leaking below the liquid surface analyzed LPG has liquid form. While, for the leaking above the liquid surface analyzed LPG has gas form. Furthermore, for liquid leakage the largest hazard zone of release was observed.