Modeling the consequences of hazardous fluids releases is an integral part of any process hazard management program. For most applications within the oil, gas, and petrochemical industry the potential outcomes of a hazardous fluid release fall into one of the following categories: flammable vapor cloud, toxic vapor cloud, torch (jet) fire, pool fire, BLEVE fireballs, or a vapor cloud explosion.
Our Consequence Modeling begins by calculating the rate of release of the fluid and its thermodynamic state after depressurization to the atmosphere. If the release begins as liquid, the amount of material that falls to the ground or becomes vapor or aerosol is determined. For vapor cloud hazards, calculations are performed which predict the dispersion of the released material in the atmosphere. If ignition of a flammable material is assumed to occur, the release modeling provides information to the fire radiation models in order to determine the thermal radiation impacts. A vapor cloud explosion (VCE) model can be used to determine the impact of overpressure, should a flammable vapor cloud be ignited.
The CANARY by Quest software package is used to perform the Consequence Modeling types listed above. CANARY was designed by Quest engineers and built around a multi-component thermodynamics package. From a list of over 250 components, actual process streams can be accurately simulated and used in the consequence calculations.
In addition to CANARY, Quest uses many other consequence models for specific purposes. These include the use of public-domain consequence models (e.g., DEGADIS or LNGFIRE3 for LNG) or Computational Fluid Dynamics models to solve complex problems.