Keys to modeling LNG spills on water

Area of Science:

• Chemical Engineering
• Environmental Science
• Risk Management

Background:

• Liquefied natural gas (LNG) spills on water pose complex modeling challenges due to unconfined spread and limited experimental data.
• Current methods often estimate evaporation and burn rates empirically, which is unreliable for large spills.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a more effective model for predicting LNG pool sizes on water by calculating, rather than estimating, evaporation and burn rates.
• To improve risk management planning for potential LNG release incidents.

Main Methods:

• Utilized rigorous multicomponent physical properties and a time-varying analysis of spill and evaporation.
• Employed a material and energy balance approach, incorporating heat transfer from water to LNG, accounting for turbulence.
• Developed a fundamentally based framework for LNG-water turbulence and pool fire heat transfer, validated with large-scale test data.

Main Results:

• The model provides calculated evaporation and burn rates, offering more accurate predictions than empirical estimations.
• Incorporated a "turbulence factor" for heat transfer, informed by large-scale unignited LNG spill tests on water.
• Heat transfer from the pool fire was based on data from the largest land-based pool fire tests.

Conclusions:

• The developed model offers a more robust approach to assessing LNG spill consequences on water.
• Accurate calculation of evaporation and burn rates is key to improving the predictive capability of LNG spill models.
• Further research into LNG-water turbulence and pool fire dynamics can enhance model accuracy.