A new approach for the calculation of flammable gas cloud based on gas dispersion using computational fluid dynamics

Predicting flammable cloud volumes in industrial sites is essential for risk analysis. We developed a mathematical model for probabilistic explosion analysis to calculate flammable cloud sizes. The model is based on two non-dimensional groups developed using the Pi theorem of Buckingham and the fundamentals of the Kinetic Theory of Gases. We show that the flammable cloud volume increases rapidly at the early stages of the gas leak, and then it decays exponentially. The gas dispersion model is adjusted with a few CFD simulations and has good agreement with numerical simulation.