Measurement and modelling of the near-field structure of large-scale sonic CO2 releases from pipelines

The work presented in this paper describes a novel multi-phase discharge and dispersion model capable of predicting the near-field fluid dynamics and phase-transition phenomena associated with accidental CO2 releases. Also presented in this paper are previously unpublished data describing the near-field structure of a number of large- scale CO2 experimental releases, obtained through the EU-FP7 CO2PipeHaz (2009) project. The calculations employed an adaptive finite-volume grid algorithm to solve the Favre-averaged fluid-flow equations. This equation set was closed with the inclusion of both a two-equation k-ε model and a second-moment Reynolds stress model to represent turbulent fluctuations. Results demonstrate the superior performance of the Reynolds stress transport model when compared to its compressibility-corrected counterpart. © 2014 Elsevier B.V.