CFD calculations of gas leak dispersion and subsequent gas explosions: validation against ignited impinging hydrogen jet experiments.

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools are increasingly employed for quantifying incident consequences in quantitative risk analysis (QRA) calculations in the process industry. However, these tools must be validated against representative experimental data, involving combined release and ignition scenarios, in order to have a real predictive capability. Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (FZK) has recently carried out experiments involving vertically upwards hydrogen releases with different release rates and velocities impinging on a plate in two different geometrical configurations.