Numerical analysis of depressurisation of highly pressurised liquid propane

This investigation consists of two parts: one upstream of the breach and the other downstream. The first part involves construction of a thermodynamic model of the fluid flow, based on a quasi-steady-state separated flow analysis. The model includes qualitative as well as quantitative description of the exit conditions together with an initial drop size distribution required to define the flow field at the exit of the breach. These flow field parameters are used as the inlet conditions to the spray model, which is used downstream of the breach. The discrete droplet model in a two-dimensional, axi-symmetric, cylindrical-polar co-ordinate system is used. Modified droplet collision and break-up models are introduced to model the dense aspects of the spray. The results predicted by the theoretical spray model at 95, 500 and 1028 mm from the nozzle, have been successfully validated against the experimental data obtained from two independent sources. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.