Experimental simulation on oil gas spreading in the complex confined spaces

In the process of mass production, usage, transport and storage of petroleum products, it would be occurred any time that the oil products leak to generate oil gas spreading which leads to serious accidents in fire and explosion safety. The cause and damage extent of oil gas explosion hazards in a confined space is not only limited to ambient temperature, humidity and other environmental conditions, but also depends on the speed, extent and concentration distribution of the oil gas spreading. In this paper, the special phenomenon, spreading law, the characteristic parameter and the main influencing factors of oil gas spreading in the complex confined spaces are studied and analyzed from the simulation experiments. The results show that the oil gas spreading process in the complex confined spaces can be divided into three stages, namely, the gravity settling stage, adherent diffusion stage and passive mass transfer stage. Many factors, such as the cross-section shape, wall roughness, ratio between length and diameter and so on, will directly affect the oil gas spreading in the complex confined space. The oil gas concentration in the outlet can reach up to about 51.28% of that in the inlet. Meanwhile, the oil gas concentration of the leakage source has great impact on the spreading process, and higher concentration will accelerate the spreading process. (C) 2012 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.