Experimental Results on the Dispersion of Buoyant Gas in a Full Scale Garage From a Complex Source

The lack of experimental data on hydrogen dispersion led to the experimental project DRIVE (Experimental Data for Hydrogen Automotive Risks Assessment, for the validation of numerical tools and for the Edition of guidelines) that involves the CEA (French Atomic Energy Commission), the National Institute of Industrial Environment and Risks (INERIS), the French car manufacturer PSA PEUGEOT CITROEN and the Research Institute on Out of Equilibrium Phenomena (IRPHE). The CEA has developed an experimental setup named GARAGE in order to analyze the condition of formation of an explosive atmosphere in an enclosure. This is a full scale facility in which a real car can be parked. Hydrogen releases were simulated with helium which volume fraction was measured with mini-katharometers. These thermal conductivity probes allow spatial and time volume fraction variations measurements. We present experimental results on the dispersion of helium in the enclosure due to releases in a typical car. The tested parameters are the location of the source (engine, bottom of the car, storage) and the flow rate. Emphasis is put on the influence of these parameters on the time evolution of the volume fraction in the enclosure as well as on the vertical distribution of helium.