Experimental and numerical study of liquefied natural gas (LNG) pool spreading and vaporization on water.

The investigation of pool spreading and vaporization phenomenon is an essential part of consequence analysis to determine the severity of LNG spills on water. In this study, release of LNG on water during marine operations is studied through experimental and numerical methods The study involves emulation of an LNG leak from transfer arms during side by side loading operations. The experimental part involves flow of LNG in a narrow trench filled with water and subsequent measurement of pool spreading and vaporization parameters. The numerical part involves CFD simulation using a three dimensional hybrid homogenous Eulerian multiphase solver to model the pool spreading and vaporization phenomenon. In this method, LNG is modeled as dispersed phase droplets which can interact with continuous phases - water and air through interphase models. The numerical study also employs a novel user-defined routine for capturing the LNG vaporization process. The CFD solver was capable of capturing the salient features of LNG pool spreading and vaporization phenomena. It was observed from experiment and CFD simulation that wind influenced both pool spreading and vaporization phenomenon through entrainment and convection.