Numerical modelling of hazards of hydrogen storage

For the general public to use hydrogen as a vehicle fuel, they must be able to handle hydrogen with the same degree of confidence as conventional liquid and gaseous fuels. The hazards associated with jet releases from accidental leaks in a vehicle-refuelling environment must be considered if hydrogen is stored and used as a high-pressure gas since a jet release can result in a fire or explosion. This paper describes the work done by us in modelling some of the consequences of accidental releases of hydrogen, implemented in our Fire Explosion Release Dispersion (FRED) software. The new dispersion model is validated against experimental data available in the open literature. The model predictions of hydrogen gas concentration as a function of distance are in good agreement with experiments. In addition, FRED has been used to model the consequence of the bursting of a vessel containing compressed hydrogen. The results obtained from FRED, i.e. overpressure as a function of distance, match well in comparison to experiments. Overall, it is concluded that FRED can model the consequences of an accidental release of hydrogen and the blast waves generated from bursting of vessel containing compressed hydrogen.