Safety of hydrogen and natural gas blends

Safe handling of hydrogen and hydrogen natural gas blends requires an understanding of hazards and associated risks arising from leaks. These include (but are not limited to) hazard distances defined by the extent of the flammable cloud, and thermal effects from jet fire. The impact of leak conditions on dispersion must be understood for typical connections. Understanding of the underlying physical phenomena is key as countries move towards a network with hydrogen blends. Work is needed to adjust safety zones to account for hydrogen blends. An objective of this project is to expand Ulster analytical models for unignited and ignited jets to account for methane and hydrogen-methane blends. The effect of buoyancy on the releases should also be accounted for. The study will focus on a combination of analytical modelling and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling.
Deliverables
-Critical literature review of unignited and ignited hydrogen, and hydrogen-methane releases, hazards identification and analysis, credible incident scenarios, modelling approaches for hydrogen hazards;
-Contemporary models for simulation of unignited and ignited releases of blends
-Verification and/or validation of models against available experimental data as relevant;
-Simulation of selected incident scenarios;
-Formulation of novel safety strategies and engineering solutions;