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Procedia Engineering 52 (2013) 349 – 354

Jet Fire Consequence Evaluation on the Natural Gas Transported by

Pipelines
TONG Shu-jiaoa, LO Siu-mingb,*, ZHANG Pei-honga, CHEN Bao-zhia
a
School of Resource and Civil Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110004, China
b
Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

Abstract

Along with the development of urban construction and industry requirement, more and more natural gas has been transported by pipelines.
During the transportation, the leakage of the natural gas would be happened because the gas pipelines may be ruptured by the inner or
outer factors. If the concentration of the mixture gas composed by natural gas and air reaches the burning and/or explosion limit, it will
possibly deal to the fire and/or explosion accident resulting in casualties and serious loss of property once there is a fire source in the
surroundings. Therefore the relevant research on the risk analysis and evaluation to the pipeline carrying the natural gas has been
focused in the field of safety engineering in recent years. It is well recognized that the more challenging accident is a jet-fire, wherever
pressurized, or pressure liquefied flammable materials are handled, so it is necessary to carry out the evaluation on the jet fire and its
preventing and controlling measures. In this paper, the model of the jet fire is built firstly, and then the jet fire consequence evaluation on
the natural gas pipelines is processed, and aided by the computer-assisted program MATLAB, the relevant datum have been processed
and the influenced areas to person and equipment have been charted; finally, the corresponding preventing and controlling suggestions to
guarantee the safety of the transportation have been proposed in this paper. The results of the study are practically significant to the risk
assessment and safety management of the natural gas pipeline.
© 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
© 2012 The
Selection Authors. Published
and peer-review by Elsevier
under responsibility Ltd. of Engineering of Sun Yat-sen University
of School

Keywords:natural gas; jet fire; pipeline; risk evaluation

1. Introduction

As a kind of clear, efficient and high quality known energy, the natural gas has been widely used in the chemical industry,
the electric power, city gas, and other industrial and civil fields. With the development of urban construction and industry,
more and more natural gas has been transported by pipelines, and it will be widely used in the future in China. But the
leakage of the natural gas would be happened during the transportation, because the gas pipelines may be ruptured by the
inner or outer factors such as the corrosion, material ageing, and poor quality and so on. If the concentration of the mixture
gas composed by natural gas and air reaches the burning and/or explosion limit, it will possibly deal to the fire and/or
explosion accident.
If the fire and/or explosion accidents are happened for the natural gas transported by pipeline, the people’ lives and the
surrounding equipments and buildings would be affected seriously. For examples in China, an underground natural gas
pipeline was ruptured, and then the mixture gas exploded on January 1, 2002. As the consequence of the accident, at least
six persons were killed; two persons were badly injured and two persons were slightly injuries in Daqing city. Another gas
pipeline exploded during the maintenance of the pipelines on April 20, 2004, there were two persons were killed, one person
was badly injured and six persons were slightly injuries in the accident in Huainan city. So the risk research on the natural
gas transported by pipelines has important practical significance to prevent the personnel security and property safety.
Therefore the relevant research on the risk analysis and evaluation to the natural gas transported by pipelines has been

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +86-825-3442-7683; fax: +86-852-3442-7683.

E-mail address: bcsmli@cityu.edu.hk. Fund NO.:51174046

1877-7058 © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of School of Engineering of Sun Yat-sen University
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2013.02.152
350 Tong Shu-jiao et al. / Procedia Engineering 52 (2013) 349 – 354

focused in the field of safety engineering in recent years. Some calculation models such as UDM model [4], BM model [5]
and FEM3 model [6] have been put forward to simulate gas leakage diffusion and evaluate the risk of the gas pipeline, and
some model were applied in different cases such as chemical equipment, process pipelines and so on. Also some software
such as the PHAST [7] was used to analysis the diffusion of the natural gas when the leakage happened. It is well recognized
that the more challenging accident is a jet-fire, wherever pressurized, or pressure liquefied flammable materials are handled.
In particular, a reactive chemical fuelled jet-fire may be more severe than a hydrocarbon pool fire [8]. The leaked natural gas
with high pressure will be jetted out as a jet flow from the split of the pipeline, if the leaked gas is lit at the split, then the jet
fire is happened, the peripheral personnel and buildings would be damaged. In view of that, the jet fire model for the natural
gas is built firstly in the paper; the consequence evaluation on the jet fire accident for the natural gas pipelines is processed,
the calculating data and the influenced areas to person and equipment are charted by applying the software MATLAB. Also,
some suggestions are brought forward at last in this paper. The results are helpful to the risk evaluation and safety
management of the natural gas pipeline.

2. Jet Fire Model

The leaked combustible material with high pressure can form a jet flow, if the gas is lit at the leakage split, then the jet
fire is happened. The jet fire model is built as the following [9-16].
The equivalent jet diameter is applied to calculate the jet fire diameter. The equivalent jet diameter can be obtained from
the formula 1.
0
Deq D0
1
Where,
D0: Split diameter, m;
3
0: Density of leakage gas, kg/m ;
: Density of environmental gas, kg/m3
If the density of the leakage gas 0 is equivalent with the density of the environmental gas instantly at the moment of
the leakage, then the equivalent jet diameter Deq is equal to the diameter of the actual split D0. The gas concentration C(x)
where it is x meters away from the jet origin on the jet flow axis can be derived from formula 2.
b1 b2
b1
C ( x)
x
0.32 1
Deq 0
2
In the above formula b1 and b2 is the distribution parameters. The two parameters can be obtained by the following
formula 3.
2
b1 50.5 48.2 9.95
b2 23.0 41.0
3
The gas concentration C(x,y) in any point of the perpendicular plane to the jet axis where it is x meters away from the jet
origin on the jet flow axis can be calculated through the formula 4.
y
b2 ( )2
C(x, y) C(x)e x
4
Where,
C(x): Gas concentration where it is x meters away from the jet origin on the jet flow axis, kg/m3;
b2: Distribution parameters;
y: Distance from the selected point to the jet flow axis, m.
With the increase of the distance to the jet origin, the gas velocity will become lower until it is equal to the wind velocity
surrounding when the gas movement will no longer meets the jet flow rule. Therefore the critical velocity and the critical
concentration for the liquid gas should be calculated when the jet fire consequence evaluation is processing.
Suppose that the leakage gas velocity where it is x meters away from to the jet origin on the jet flow axis is U(x), see the
formula 5.
 Tong Shu-jiao et al. / Procedia Engineering 52 (2013) 349 – 354 351

U ( x) b1 x Deq
0
[0.32 1 ] ( )2
U0 4 Deq x
0
5
Where U0 stands for the initial velocity of the jet flow, U0 is equal to the leakage gas velocity when the gas flows across
the split. U0 can be calculated by using the next formula 6.
Q0
U0
D0 2
Cd ( )
2 6
Where,
Q0: Leakage gas velocity, kg/s;
Cd: Leakage coefficient
When P0/P is less than (2/(k+1))(k/(k-1)), the gas flow is sonic , the leakage gas velocity can be derived from the formula
7. Where P stands for the medium pressure in the container, P0 stands for the environmental pressure, their units are Pa, and
the parameter k stands for the gas adiabatic exponent.
1
2 2 k 1
Q0 YCd A Rk T
k 1 k 1 7
Where
Cd: Leakage gas coefficient, selected between 0.61 and 1.0;
A: Split size, m2;
R: Gas constant, J/(mol.k);
T: Gas temperature, K;
Y: Gas expansion factor, for sonic flow, Y is taken as 1; for subsonic flow, the gas expansion factor can be derived from
the following formula.
1 k 1 kk 11 P k2 P k1
Y ( )( ) ( ) [1 ( 0 ) k ]
k 1 2 P0 P
8
When P0/P is more than(2/(k+1))(k/(k-1)) the gas flow is subsonic, the leakage gas velocity can be derived from the
formula 9.
k 1
2 k 1
Q0 YCd A P k
k 1 9
In the calculation of the jet fire heat flux, regard it as a series of point heat source located on the jet flow axis, and the
total thermal radiation flux can be calculated by using the jet diffusion formula.
The thermal radiation flux of each point in the heat source is shown as the formula 10.
q Q0 H c 10
Where,
q: Radiation flux of point heat source, W;
: Efficiency factor;
Hc: Gas combustion heat, J/kg;
The flame length for jet fire is equal to the distance from the leakage split to the lower limit combustion of the
combustible mixture on the jet flow axis. Sometimes in order to simple calculation, the jet flow axis length will be taken as
the flame length for jet fire. The flame length for jet fire can be obtained according to the simplified formula 2.11. Where
the parameter L stands for the flame length, its unit is m.
( H C Q0 ) 0.444
L
161.66 11
The thermal radiation strength Ii means the radiation strength from some point heat source i to the location where it is x
meters away from the point on jet flow axis can be obtained according to the formula 12. The parameter stands for the
radiation rate, its value is 0.2.
q
Ii
4 x2 12
352 Tong Shu-jiao et al. / Procedia Engineering 52 (2013) 349 – 354

And then the thermal radiation intensity at x location is the sum of all the thermal radiation strength from each point heat
source to that point.
I Ii
n 13
In the formula 13 n is the selected number of the point heat source, generally it is taken as 5.
Accordingly, the potential influenced area to person and equipment under different harm or damage criteria can be
derived from the above formulas.

3. Consequence Simulation Aided by MATLAB

Because the calculation process is relatively complex, therefore the jet fire consequence needs to be calculated by the
computer-assisted program.
MATLAB is a high-level language and interactive environment for numerical computation, visualization, and
programming. MATLAB can be used to analyze data, develop algorithms, and create models and applications. The
language, tools, and built-in math functions can be used to explore multiple approaches and reach a solution faster than the
traditional programming languages. So, the computer-assisted software MATLAB is applied to complete the calculation and
simulation of the jet fire consequence for the natural gas pipeline in this paper.
Based on the above jet fire combustion model, the consequence and damage of the jet fire after the leakage of the natural
gas transported by pipeline can be obtained. Suppose that some jet fire is happened during the operating because of the
rupture for some reasons. The split is approximate a circular hole on the pipeline, its diameter is 0.025 m, pressure in the
pipeline is 3 MPa, molar mass of the natural gas in the pipeline is 0.0195 kg/mol, then according to the calculation, it is
known that the leakage gas velocity is 2.78kg/S.
Before the evaluation of the jet fire consequence for the natural gas transported by pipelines, the harm and damage
criteria must be determined. In this paper, the harm criteria to person are listed in the table 1, the damage criteria to
equipment are listed in the table 2.

Table 1. Harm criteria of jet fire to person

No.
Heat flux (kW/m2) Harm effect on person

1 6.5 Death
2 4.3 Serious injury
3 1.9 Minor injury

Table 2. Damage criteria of jet fire to equipment

No.
Heat flux (kW/m2) Damage effect on equipment

1 100 Totally destroyed

2 35 Seriously damaged
3 25 Structure components deformed

In the calculation, the jet fire flame direction is taken as the x axis. According to the harm criteria to person (see the table
1) and the damage criteria to equipment (see the table 2), the influenced area under respective thermal radiation intensity
can be obtained by running the MATLAB program in the paper. The consequences simulation of jet fire for natural gas
pipeline is shown as the chart 1.
The different influenced areas under different conditions are shown with three kinds of colours (as the chart shown). The
colour is darker; the more serious is the consequence. For example, in the influenced area of harm to person chart the death
area is shown as the red area, the serious injury area is shown as the purple area, and the minor injury area is shown as the
yellow area.
 Tong Shu-jiao et al. / Procedia Engineering 52 (2013) 349 – 354 353

Chart 1. Consequence simulation of jet fire for natural gas pipeline

4. Results

In this example the maximum flame length for jet fire is about 14.16m in the consequence calculation. The influenced
area of harm to person from the jet fire is listed in the table 3 and the influenced area of damage to equipment from the jet
fire is shown in the table 4. So as a result the influenced area of harm to person is from 51.25m to 85.08m, the influenced
area of damage to person is from 27.29m to 34.34m. Therefore it is suggested that the influenced areas should be taken as
the vital zones of the safety management for the enterprise.

Table 3. Influenced area of harm to person from jet fire

Harm effect on person Distance to Jet origin on X axis/m

Death -14.09 to 37.16

Serious injury -18.32 to 41.39
Minor injury -31.01 to 54.07

Table 4. Influenced area of damage to equipment from jet fire

Damage effect on equipment Distance to Jet origin on X axis/m

Totally destroyed -2.11 to 25.18

Seriously damaged -4.93 to 28.00
Structure components deformed -5.64 to 28.70

It is obvious that the consequences of the jet fire for the natural gas pipeline are so severe that will probably lead to the
casualty and wealth loss, so detailed prevention and management should be well done in the daily operation as far as
possible to avoid the jet fire accidents.

5. Conclusions and Suggestions

Through the above research the following conclusion can be obtained in this paper.
(1) Among three kinds of the fire accident, the more challenging accident is a jet-fire, wherever pressurized, or pressure
liquefied flammable materials are handled. The risk research on the natural gas transported by pipelines has important
practical significance to prevent the personnel security and property safety.
(2) The computer-assisted program MATLAB can be used as one of the effective tool to assess the risk and evaluate the
consequence for the natural gas pipeline. Based on the jet fire model, using the aided program MATLAB to carry on data
354 Tong Shu-jiao et al. / Procedia Engineering 52 (2013) 349 – 354

processing and consequence charting can describe the influenced area of harm to person and damage to equipment when
some jet fire accident is happened for the natural gas transported by pipelines.
(3) In order to prevent the jet fire, the enterprise should enhance the daily monitoring, safety management and emergency
preparatory, strengthen the daily maintenance and repair in order to prevent the accidents. The main efforts should be done
by the enterprise including controlling the fire source, strictly implementing the rules of hot work; strictly implementing the
fire regulations, enhancing the fire infrastructure investment; strengthening the safety publicity and education on fire,
elevating the safety awareness of the masses; establishing the fire emergency plans and implementing the regular exercise
and revision of the emergency plans.
(3) In order to control the consequence of the jet fire, the enterprise should rapidly organize peripheral personnel to leave
the dangerous area at the same time immediately take emergency measures to eliminate accident as soon as possible when
the accident is happened. The main emergency measures include shutting down the ignition source and cutting off the
import of materials; dividing the danger zone at the scene of the accident and implementing the access control; timely
plugging and diluting the hazardous materials and so on. In one word, the enterprise should do the best to manage and
extinguish all the hazards to avoid the emergency and less the consequences of the accidents.

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