Numerical simulation of instantaneous dispersion of natural gas highly containing carbon dioxide and its reliability analysis

Accident of asphyxiation and explosion is likely to be induced by the instantaneous leakage of natural gas highly containing carbon dioxide. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method is one of the best ways to study such kind of dispersion issue; however, it is necessary to prove the reliability based on physical essence. This paper built numerical model for puff dispersion of natural gas highly containing carbon dioxide and analyzed the model´s reliability from three aspects: i.e. concentration bifurcation, upwind dispersion and asymmetry feature. The concentration field given by simulation based on CFD model had the above mentioned three typical features of dense gas dispersion. These results suggested that it is practical to use CFD simulation method to do research on problem of puff dispersion caused by instantaneous release of natural gas highly containing carbon dioxide.