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Article history:
Received 7 February 2010
Accepted 9 March 2010
Keywords:
Stratication
BLEVE
LPG
Depressurization
a b s t r a c t
The thermal stratication of Liqueed Petroleum Gas (LPG) and its effect on the occurrence of the boiling
liquid expanding vapor explosion (BLEVE) have been investigated experimentally. Stratications in liquid
and vapor occur when the LPG tank is heated. The degree of the liquid stratication b increases with an
increasing heat ux and decreasing lling ratio. The effect of stratication on the BLEVE has been examined with depressurization tests of LPG. The results show that the pressure recovery for the stratied LPG
(b = 1.4) upon sudden depressurization is much lower than that for the isothermal LPG (b = 1). It can be
concluded that the liquid stratication decreases the liquid energy and the occurrence of the BLEVE.
2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
The boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion (BLEVE) is a catastrophic accident resulting from explosive ash of pressure-liqueed gas (PLG) out of the tank induced by re. When a tank carrying
PLG is subjected to re impingement, the liquid near the wall heats
up and rises to the top. The pressure in the tank will be higher than
that calculated by the average liquid temperature because the top
liquid dominates the pressure. When the pressure reaches the set
value, as shown in Fig. 1 (t0t1), the safety relief valve opens to release the liquid. The upper warmest liquid ows off till the liquid in
the tank becomes isothermal. The relief valve is venting at its maximum rate to maintain the tank pressure at or near the relief
valves full-open pressure, as illustrated in Fig. 1 (t1t2). At the
same time, the strength of the tank wall heated by re decreases.
When the wall strength cannot withstand the internal pressure,
the tank fails and PLG ashes explosively, which may lead to the
BLEVE as depicted by line 1 in Fig. 1 (t2t3) [1,2]. However, sometimes the tank wall is so thin that a BLEVE takes place before the
safety relief valve opens to destratify liquid, as depicted by line 2
in Fig. 1.
The energy of PLG is one of the signicant parameters for the
occurrence of the BLEVE. There are a lot of studies on the thermal
response of PLG in tanks impinged by re. Specically, Chen et al.
[3] developed a computer model to determine the thermal response of horizontal LPG tanks involved in re engulfment accidents. Yu et al. [4] used an integral approach to investigate the
development of the free convection boundary layer on a heated
concave surface. Hadjisophocleous et al. [5] employed eld and
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 21 34206533; fax: +86 21 34206814.
E-mail address: linwsh@sjtu.edu.cn (W. Lin).
0894-1777/$ - see front matter 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.expthermusci.2010.03.001
973
Nomenclature
cross area of the tank (m2)
specic heat (kJ kg1 K1)
diameter of orice (m)
the fraction of liquid ash ()
height (m)
specic heat ratio ()
mass (kg)
pressure (Pa)
energy (kJ)
time (s)
temperature (K)
volume (m3)
equivalent of TNT (kg)
A
c
D
f
h
k
m
P
Q
t
T
V
W
distance (m)
Greek letters
b
the degree of liquid stratication ()
q
density (kg m3)
Subscripts
atm
atmosphere
L
liquid
p
pressure
sat
saturation
V
vapor
w
wall
C p T 0 T B
;
Dhv
2. Liquid energy
V L
W 0:024
"
k1 #
P=Patm V
Patm k
;
1
k1
P
where W is the equivalent of TNT (kg); Patm and P are the pressures
in the atmosphere and in the tank, respectively; V can be calculated
as
V V V V L ;
where VV is the volume of vapor in the tank; V L is the volume of liquid that can ash just after the moment of rupture described as:
V L
V L f qLo =qVT ;
with VL being the actual volume of liquid and qLo and qVT being the
densities of liquid and vapor, respectively. The fraction of liquid that
ashes after depressurization, f, will be [18]:
f 1e
hL
Axf
qLo
dx;
qVT
where hL is the height of the liquid, and A(x) is the cross section area
of the tank.
Substituting Eq. (4) into Eq. (5), one can get:
V L
hL
C p TxT B
qLo
Ax 1 e Dhv
dx:
qVT
P
;
Psat
where Psat is the saturation pressure based on the mass averaged liquid temperature.
From the above discussion, it is clear that the liquid energy depends on the degree of the liquid stratication. Hence, the comparison of depressurization processes of PLG with different degrees of
the liquid stratication (b = 1 and b > 1) is useful for studying the
inuence of the stratication on the occurrence of the BLEVE.
P / MPa
t0
t1
t / min
Fig. 1. Pressure history of BLEVE.
t2
t3
974
(a)
1
2
3
10
11
5
No.5
No.4
6(a)
7(a)
No.3
No.2
No.1
(b)
12
6(b)
7(b)
Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of test facility (1) fast action valve; (2) orice plate; (3) pressure transducer; (4) pressure gauge; (5) thermocouples; (6a) electric heater (b) heating
rods; (7a) insulation (b) water; (8) FLUKE; (9) computer; (10) data acquisition system; (11) charge amplier; (12) liquid level meter.
energy transfer to the loading. When the heater heats the tank, the
liquid near the wall warms up rst. Then it becomes less dense and
rises up to generate the stratication region. For the stratied LPG,
b is greater than 1. Tests at different heat uxes (4 kW m2 and
10 kW m2) and lling ratios (85% and 45%) have been conducted.
When the tank pressure reached the set value, the depressurization tests were initiated by activating a fast action ball valve connecting to the tank through a vertical vent line. The vent line
was a 50 mm diameter stainless steel tube. The valve closed after
2 s. Orice plates in diameters of 10 mm and 20 mm were placed
between two anges connected to the fast action valve and were
0.75 m away from the vessel.
In order to study the effect of b on the BLEVE, the depressurization tests for the isothermal liquid (b = 1) were also performed. To
keep the LPG at its saturation temperature, a water bath was used
to heat the LPG. As shown in Fig. 2b, the water surrounding the
975
In Fig. 3, the temperature records show that there are stratications in both liquid and vapor zones when the tank is heated by
outer heating. On trace T4 in Fig. 3a there is a spike when
t = 27 min. This can be interpreted as that the vapor ows more
violently than the liquid. As can also be seen, the liquid temperatures (T1 and T2) in Figs. 3b and 4b increase smoothly while the vapor temperatures (T3, T4 and T5) uctuate although the tank is
heated under uniform and unchanged heat ux by the electric heater. If the tank is heated by re rather than by the electric heater,
the temperatures of the vapor will change more greatly and that
will make the study more difcult.
Fig. 4a depicts variations of the saturation pressures based on
the measured temperatures at 85% lling ratio. psat(T1) represents
the saturation pressure based on Ti (i = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and p is the
measured tank pressure. Clearly, p-curve is close to those from
psat(T3) to psat(T4), and its slope is greater than that of psat(T2) and
much greater than that of psat(T1). These indicate that the upper
warmer liquid dominates the tank pressure.
The effects of the lling ratio and the heat ux on the pressure
are shown in Fig. 5. An increase in the heat ux increases the pressure-rise-rate because the higher heat ux enhances the natural
convection and in return brings about the quick increase of the liquid temperature. Higher lling ratios result in higher rise rates of
the pressure. This is because the energy through the vapor phase is
2.8
350
T1
340
(a) 85%,10kWm
T2
-2
T4
p / MPa
T/K
-2
psat(T4)
2.0
T5
320
310
psat(T5)
p
1.6
1.2
300
290
(a) 85%,10kWm
psat(T2)
psat(T3)
T3
330
psat(T1)
2.4
0.8
10
15
20
25
10
15
20
25
t / min
t / min
5
400
T1
380
-2
psat(T2)
(b) 45%,10kWm
-2
psat(T3)
T3
p / MPa
T4
T5
340
psat(T1)
T2
360
T/K
(b) 45%,10kWm
psat(T4)
psat(T5)
p
320
1
300
280
0
0
10
15
t / min
Fig. 3. Temperature history.
20
25
30
10
15
20
25
30
t / min
Fig. 4. Comparison between pressures measured and pressures based on the
saturation temperatures.
976
2.0
350
1.5
T1
330
T3
T2
T/K
p / MPa
T4
T5
320
310
-2
1.0
0.5
340
85%,4kWm
-2
85%,10kWm
-2
45%,4kWm
-2
45%,10kWm
0
10
20
30
40
50
300
290
280
60
10
15
T1
380
T3
1.4
1.3
1.2
1.1
-2
85%,4kWm
-2
85%,10kWm
-2
45%,4kWm
-2
45%,10kWm
1.0
30
40
t / min
Fig. 6. The degree of stratication, b.
50
60
T2
T5
360
340
320
time to open
the valve
300
280
After the pressure reaches the set value, the valve is opened to
examine the effect of venting on the liquid stratication. The orice diameter is 10 mm and the heat ux is 10 kW m2. The temperature histories with the lling ratio of 60% and 45% are
plotted in Fig. 7a and b, respectively. When the lling ratio is
60%, the interface between liquid and vapor is located at a certain
position between thermocouples No. 3 and No. 4. It can be seen
20
400
T4
T/K
lower than that through the liquid phase and the heat transport to
the tank at lower lling ratio is lower.
The effects of the heat ux and the lling ratio on the degree of
the liquid stratication are shown in Fig. 6. As supposed, the higher
the heat ux is, the greater the degree of stratication will be.
According to Ref. [20], the heat amount Q and the mass m of the
liquid that ows into the stratication region are proportional to
x and x8/7, respectively, where x is the height of the liquid. It can
be seen that when the lling ratio increases, the mass in the stratication region rises faster than that of the heat amount added. As
a result, the degree of the liquid stratication decreases.
10
30
420
25
t / min
t / min
0.9
20
10
20
30
40
50
t / min
Fig. 7. Temperature history during venting.
977
4.0
It can also be seen from Fig. 7 that after the valve closes again
the temperatures of vapor rise faster than those of liquid. This is
because the ow of vapor and liquid enhances the convection heat
transfer between the LPG and the wall and the specic heat of vapor is lower than that of liquid.
=1.4
=1.0
3.5
(a) D=10mm
3.0
(1) The stratication of vapor reduces the rate of depressurization. When the LPG is suddenly exposed to the atmosphere,
the pressure decreases rst. Before the liquid reaches a certain superheat degree, the depressurization rate is dedicated
by the hot vapor. Fig. 3b shows that the stratication occurs
both in the liquid and in the vapor. The vapor is superheated
and its maximum temperature will be 150 K higher than
that of liquid. Under the same pressure and orice diameter,
an increase in the vapor temperature reduces the depressurization rate. In the rst group, the depressurization rates for
Table 1
The initial test conditions.
D (mm)
Ti (K)
P0 (MPa)
Hi (mm)
WL (kg)
(a) 10
1.4
1
297.3343.2
333.7
2.26
2.20
265 (45%)
264
0.0163
0.0192
(b) 20
1.3
1
312.0360.5
353.2
2.96
3.05
235 (40%)
217
0.0199
0.0271
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
1.4
1.6
t/s
4.0
3.5
=1.3
=1.0
(b) D=20mm
3.0
p / MPa
The above results show that the liquid temperature may become uniform (b 1) if the valve keeps open before the occurrence
of a BLEVE. The following two groups of comparative tests were
conducted to study the effects of the liquid stratication and destratication on the pressure variation when LPG was suddenly
depressurized.
The stratied and isothermal LPGs are obtained by the apparatus shown in Fig. 2a and b, respectively. When the pressure reaches
the set value, the depressurization test is initiated via opening the
fast action valve. The initial conditions are listed in Table 1. It can
be seen that the energy of the isothermal LPG is greater than that of
the stratied LPG.
Fig. 8a illustrates the pressure history for the stratied LPG. The
depressurization orice is 10 mm in diameter. The associated pressure and temperature histories for the stratied LPG before depressurization are shown in Figs. 3b and 4b. When the stratied liquid
(b = 1.4) is depressurized suddenly, the pressure drops down at
0.48 MPa s1 without obvious pressure recovery. But for the uniform LPG (b = 1.0) whose liquid energy is greater than the stratication liquid, the pressure drops from 2.20 MPa to 2.05 MPa, and
will rebound 0.05 s later. The maximum pressure recovery
(2.55 MPa) exceeds the initial pressure about 0.35 MPa, which
can lead to the development of the crack and the failure of the tank.
The orice diameter shown in Fig. 8b is 20 mm. The depressurization test for the stratied LPG shows that upon the depressurization there is a little oscillation and then the pressure
decreases smoothly from 2.96 MPa to 1.73 MPa in 0.767 s. The
depressurization test starts for the isothermal LPG (b = 1.0) when
the pressure reaches 3.05 MPa. During the test, the pressure drops
down to 2.93 MPa in 0.04 s and then increases. The maximum
recovery pressure can reach 3.45 MPa, which is 0.40 MPa higher
than the initial pressure. This means that the recovery pressure
after the sudden depressurization can be a great threat to the tank
because its strength has decreased under re.
From the above two gures, it can be seen that the pressure histories upon rapid depressurization for the stratied LPG are different from those for the isothermal LPG. The explanation can be
given as follows:
p / MPa
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
1.0
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
2.0
t/s
Fig. 8. Pressure history during depressurization.
the stratied and isothermal LPGs are 1.75 MPa s1 and
8 MPa s1, respectively. The experiments conducted by Venart and Ramier [21] showed that the liquidvapor interface
rose up and a rapidly rising two-phase swell developed
due to the boiling after the liquid was depressurized suddenly. Rapid nucleation and growth of bubbles within the
increasingly superheat liquid further accelerate the rising
of the two-phase swell. The uid in the two-phase swell
begins to exit from the vessel only after it has impacted
the top of the vessel and causes an impulse, which is like a
water hammer, to the tank head. Reid [22] suggested that
the higher depressurization rate causes higher superheat
degree for the liquid. Therefore, the liquid at high depressurization rate will reach a high degree of superheat and its
pressure rebounds more violently.
(2) Comparing with the isothermal liquid, the stratied liquid at
the same pressure contains low energy WL (as shown in
Table 1) because the upper liquid at higher temperature dictates the pressure. Low liquid energy cannot induce pronounced pressure rebound. In Fig. 8a, two groups of tests
have near pressures (2.26 MPa and 2.20 MPa) and lling
ratio (45%) but the different stratication degrees (b = 1.4
and b = 1.0) and the different liquid energy (0.0163 kg TNT
and 0.0192 kg TNT). That results in weaker pressure rebound
of the former test than that of the later.
978
5. Conclusion
A series of tests related to the stratication of LPGs in the tank
heated by the outer heating have been carried out in this study.
The effects of the heat ux and the lling ratio on the stratication
are analyzed. The depressurization tests were also conducted to
study the inuence of the stratication on the pressure recovery.
The following conclusions can be drawn from the experimental results: (1) The greater of the heat ux is, the greater the degree of
the liquid stratication will be. The higher the lling ratio is, the
smaller the degree of the liquid stratication will be. (2) The opening of the valve can result in the temperature rise of the lower liquid and the decrease of the degree of the liquid stratication.
(3) The liquid energy of the LPG with a uniform temperature is
greater than that of the stratied LPG. Higher energy may cause
high pressure recovery and increases the probability of the occurrence of BLEVE.
Acknowledgement
The authors are grateful to the support of Chinas National Natural Science Fund (No. 50076024).
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