A Parametric Study to Investigate Human Injury and Fatality due to Vapor Cloud Explosion

The processing area of an offshore platform consists of various equipment for handling, separation and transferring of crude oil and natural gas. Consequently, the chances of an accidental release are quite high as compared to other areas. Among the major hazard posed on an offshore platform, Vapor Cloud Explosion (VCE) is the fatal one. Among the various factors that impact the resulting overpressure developed due to VCE: leak rates, wind speeds, and wind directions are the important ones. The current paper investigates the effect of these factors (leak rates, wind speeds and wind directions) on explosion strength on an offshore platform. The release, dispersion and resulting VCE are modelled by utilizing Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software Flame Acceleration Simulator (FLACS). Furthermore, risk estimation for human injury/fatality (risk of eardrum rupture, head impact, and whole-body displacement) has been done considering these factors using probit models. The results showed that these factors (leak rates, wind speeds, and wind directions) have a major impact on resulting explosion strength and consequently, on the risk of human injury/fatality. Risk of head impact is quite high while risk of eardrum rupture and whole-body displacement is low. The current study can be useful in designing effective safety measures to reduce the impact of such accidents