Empirical research on diffusion behavior of leaked gas in the ground

Abstract Chemical plants and gas utilities own large underground pipelines to transport material such as combustible gas. For example, city gas utilities in Japan have about 230,000 km of pipelines, even if only the pipelines to deliver gas to their customers are considered. Any accidents involving such pipelines can lead to enormous human and physical damage, and their security is therefore a top-priority issue for utilities. For the safety management of underground pipelines, in addition to assessment of the long-term reliability of pipeline materials, it is extremely important to understand the diffusion behavior of gases in the ground, such as the diffusion range and time, in the case of leakage, and the impact on the surrounding area is a fundamental factor to be considered in the design and maintenance of safe facilities and for emergency response. Although many papers introduce the situations of gas diffusion in the atmosphere such as indoor and outdoor conditions, only fundamental surveys have been conducted on gas diffusion in the ground, and there have been few full-scale empirical studies. This study reports the results of the verification of the diffusion behavior with full-scale gas leakage experiments simulating real underground pipelines, as well as the outcomes of the applicability test of a numerical simulation model investigated and proposed based on the results. This technical knowledge regarding security will contribute to further improvement of safety in the industry.

[1]  Peter A. Forsyth,et al.  Numerical simulation of multiphase flow and phase partitioning in discretely fractured geologic media , 1999 .

[2]  Jonathan F. Sykes,et al.  Compositional simulation of groundwater contamination by organic compounds: 1. Model development and verification , 1993 .

[3]  Yoshihiko Hibi,et al.  DERIVATION OF THE GOVERNMENT EQUATIONS FOR MASS TRANSFER WITH MULTICOMPONENT IN GAS-PAHSE OF SOIL , 2007 .

[4]  Richard E. Ewing,et al.  On the simulation of multicomponent gas flow in porous media , 1999 .

[5]  George F. Pinder,et al.  A Multiphase Approach to the Modeling of Porous Media Contamination by Organic Compounds: 2. Numerical Simulation , 1985 .

[6]  Kenji Jinno,et al.  NUMERICAL ANALYSIS FOR THE TRANSPORT OF CHLORINATED HYDROCARBONS BY GAS DIFFUSION IN UNSATURATED AND SATURATED ZONES , 1994 .

[7]  Yan Jin,et al.  Characterizing the Dependence of Gas Diffusion Coefficient on Soil Properties , 1996 .

[8]  J. D. Jabro,et al.  Gaseous diffusion equations for porous materials , 1982 .

[9]  Peter M. A. Sloot,et al.  Tortuosity of an Unsaturated Sandy Soil Estimated using Gas diffusion and Bulk Soil Electrical Conductivity: Comparing analogy-based Models and Lattice-Boltzmann Simulatons , 2001 .

[10]  Robert E. Montgomery,et al.  A mathematical model for removing volatile subsurface hydrocarbons by miscible displacement , 1987 .

[11]  B. Ball,et al.  A functional model of soil porosity used to interpret measurements of gas diffusion , 1994 .

[12]  Chao-Yang Wang,et al.  A multiphase mixture model for multiphase, multicomponent transport in capillary porous media—II. Numerical simulation of the transport of organic compounds in the subsurface , 1996 .

[13]  Kaoru Takara,et al.  A NUMERICAL EXPERIMENT WITH TWO-PHASE AND TWO-PHASE/THREE-COMPONENT MODELS FOR THE METHANE MIGRATION IN THE SUBSURFACE AQUIFER , 2007 .

[14]  T. Hirano,et al.  Diffusion of leaked flammable gas in soil , 1991 .

[15]  Masahiko Saito,et al.  Numerical Study on Rainfall Infiltration and Seepage Processes Considering Pore-Air Flow , 2003 .

[16]  Charles R. Faust,et al.  Transport of Immiscible Fluids Within and Below the Unsaturated Zone: A Numerical Model , 1985 .

[17]  P. Witherspoon,et al.  Numerical modeling of steam injection for the removal of nonaqueous phase liquids from the subsurface. 1. Numerical formulation , 1992 .

[18]  George F. Pinder,et al.  A Multiphase Approach to the Modeling of Porous Media Contamination by Organic Compounds: 1. Equation Development , 1985 .