The numerical evaluation of safety valve size in the pipelines of cryogenic installations

26th International Cryogenic Engineering Conference & International Cryogenic Materials Conference 2016

材料科学;物理学

Malecha, Z.M.^1

Department of Cryogenic, Aeronautic and Process Engineering, Wroclaw University of Technology, ul. Wyb. Wyspianskiego 37, Wroclaw

50-370, Poland^1

关键词: Dangerous situations;    Modeling and calculations;    Normal operations;    Numerical calculation;    Numerical procedures;    Pressure and temperature;    Pressure build up;    Safe operation;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/171/1/012039/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1757-899X/171/1/012039

学科分类：材料科学（综合）

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

The flow of cold helium in pipes is a fundamental issue of any cryogenic installation. Pipelines for helium transportation can reach lengths of hundreds of meters. The proper selection of size for individual pipelines and safety valves is a crucial part in the consideration of costs for the entire installation and its safe operation. The size of the safety valve must be properly designed in order to avoid a dangerous pressure build-up during normal operation, as well as in the case of emergency. The most commonly occurring dangerous situation is an undesired heat flux in the helium as a result of a broken insulation. In this case, the heat flux can be very intense and the build-up of the pressure in the pipe can be very rapid. In the present work, numerical calculations were used to evaluate the build-up of pressure and temperature in the pipe, in the case of a sudden and intense heat flux. The main goal of the applied numerical procedure was to evaluate the proper sizes of the safety valves in order to avoid a rise in pressure above the safety limit. The proposed numerical model and calculations were based on OpenFOAM, an open source CFD toolbox.