Hazard Assessment

Hazards abound in offshore platforms due to large amounts of combustible, toxic, and volatile chemicals being confined to a relatively small space. Hazardous gas dispersion assessments are one of the many areas where CFD can help.

In this example, BHP Billiton Petroleum Limited used FLUENT to look into hydrogen sulfide gas dispersion during unfavorable wind conditions at an offshore platform in the Lennox field off the coast of England. The figures show the plume (in which the concentrations were greater than 15 ppm) for southwest and west-southwest wind directions, respectively. Despite the plume trajectory over and through the platform, the maximum H2S concentration was found to be approximately 40 ppm at all the sampling points, well within the margin of safety.