Numerical Analysis on the Compressible Flow Characteristics of Supersonic Jet Caused by High-Pressure Pipe Rupture Using CFD

Abstract

A rupture in a high-pressure pipe causes the fluid in the pipe to be discharged in the atmosphere at a high speed resulting in a supersonic jet that generates the compressible flow. This supersonic jet may display complicated and unsteady behavior in general. In this study, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis was performed to investigate the compressible flow generated by a supersonic jet ejected from a high-pressure pipe. A Shear Stress Transport (SST) turbulence model was selected to analyze the unsteady nature of the flow, which depends upon the various gases as well as the diameter of the pipe. In the CFD analysis, the basic boundary conditions were assumed to be as follows: pipe of diameter 10 cm, jet pressure ratio of 5, and an inlet gas temperature of 300 K. During the analysis, the behavior of the shockwave generated by a supersonic jet was observed and it was found that the blast wave was generated indirectly. The pressure wave characteristics of hydrogen gas, which possesses the smallest molecular mass, showed the shortest distance to the safety zone. There were no significant difference observed for nitrogen gas, air, and oxygen gas, which have similar molecular mass. In addition, an increase in the diameter of the pipe resulted in the ejected impact caused by the increased flow rate to become larger and the zone of jet influence to extend further.