Predicting the flammable region reach of propane vapor clouds

• The Dispersion Safety factor (DSF) was applied to propane flammable clouds.
• DSF: ratio between the distance reached by the LFL and that reached by the visible cloud.
• The DSF factor can be a useful tool to indicate the hazard of cloud ignition in an emergency.

Liquified gas fuels are widely used around the world, and the growth of LNG and LPG consumption continues to increase. However, using these fuels can lead to accidents if they are released to the environment. Consequently, the challenge to control and predict such hazards has become an objective in emergency planning and risk analysis. In a previous article the “Dispersion Safety Factor” (DSF) was proposed, defined as the ratio between the distance at which the lower flammability limit concentration occurs and that corresponding to the visible contour of a vapor cloud. Its interest was demonstrated by applying it to the specific case of an LNG spill. With the appropriate modifications, this factor may be applied to the dispersion of other substances; in this communication it is applied to the atmospheric dispersion of propane, and two expressions are proposed to estimate it. Due to the similarity between the properties of both gases, these expressions could probably be applied as well to the dispersion of propylene.