Recent application of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in process safety and loss prevention: A review

• Published in: Journal of loss prevention in the process industries Vol. 67; p. 104252
• Main Authors: Shen, Ruiqing, Jiao, Zeren, Parker, Trent, Sun, Yue, Wang, Qingsheng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01-09-2020
• Subjects: Computational fluid dynamics (CFD); Dispersion modeling; Fire and explosion; Process safety; Toxic release; Dispersion modeling; Process safety; Fire and explosion; Toxic release; Computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
• ISSN: 0950-4230
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jlp.2020.104252

In recent years, significant progress has been made to ensure that process industries are among the safest workplaces in the world. However, with the increasing complexity of existing technologies and new problems brought about by emerging technologies, a strong need still exists to study the fundamentals of process safety and predict possible scenarios. This is attained by conducting the corresponding consequence modeling and risk assessments. As a result of the continuous advancement of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tools and exponentially increased computation capabilities along with better understandings of the underlying physics, CFD simulations have been applied widely in the areas of process safety and loss prevention to gain new insights, improve existing models, and assess new hazardous scenarios. In this review, 126 papers from 2010 to 2020 have been included in order to systematically categorize and summarize recent applications of CFD for fires, explosions, dispersions of flammable and toxic materials from accidental releases, incident investigations and reconstructions, and other areas of process safety. The advantages of CFD modeling are discussed and the future of CFD applications in this research area is outlined.
•Publications were collected and systematically categorized to summarize their applications of CFD.•Research areas in fires, explosions, dispersions of toxic releases were discussed.•The advantages of CFD modeling and its future applications were outlined.