title: Blanketing effect of expansion foam on liquefied natural gas (LNG) spillage pool.
abstract: With increasing consumption of natural gas, the safety of liquefied natural gas (LNG) utilization has become an issue that requires a comprehensive study on the risk of LNG spillage in facilities with mitigation measures. The immediate hazard associated with an LNG spill is the vapor hazard, i.e., a flammable vapor cloud at the ground level, due to rapid vaporization and dense gas behavior. It was believed that high expansion foam mitigated LNG vapor hazard through warming effect (raising vapor buoyancy), but the boil-off effect increased vaporization rate due to the heat from water drainage of foam. This work reveals the existence of blocking effect (blocking convection and radiation to the pool) to reduce vaporization rate. The blanketing effect on source term (vaporization rate) is a combination of boil-off and blocking effect, which was quantitatively studied through seven tests conducted in a wind tunnel with liquid nitrogen. Since the blocking effect reduces more heat to the pool than the boil-off effect adds, the blanketing effect contributes to the net reduction of heat convection and radiation to the pool by 70%. Water drainage rate of high expansion foam is essential to determine the effectiveness of blanketing effect, since water provides the boil-off effect.
authors.affiliation: Mary Kay O'Connor Process Safety Center, Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University System, College Station, TX 77843-3122, USA.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Mary Kay O'Connor Process Safety Center, Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University System, College Station, TX 77843-3122, USA.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Mary Kay O'Connor Process Safety Center - Qatar, Texas A&M University at Qatar, PO Box 23874, Doha, Qatar.
authors.forename: Tomasz
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Olewski
authors.affiliation: Mary Kay O'Connor Process Safety Center - Qatar, Texas A&M University at Qatar, PO Box 23874, Doha, Qatar.
authors.forename: Luc
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Vechot
authors.affiliation: Mary Kay O'Connor Process Safety Center, Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University System, College Station, TX 77843-3122, USA. Electronic address: mannan@tamu.edu.
authors.forename: M Sam
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Mannan
mesh_terms: D055884:Chemical Hazard Release; D059206:Natural Gas; D014835:Volatilization
chemical_list: D059206:Natural Gas
keywords: Blanketing effect; Expansion foam; LNG; Vapor hazard; Vaporization rate