Research on Diffusion Behaviors of Leaked Natural Gas in Urban Underground Utility Tunnels

With the rapid development of urban underground utility tunnels in China, the leakage of natural gas in urban underground utility tunnels is a major concern in industrial risk assessments. To inspect natural gas pipe leakage and study the diffusion of natural gas diffusion, a computational fluid dynamic (CFD) model combined with realizable k-epsilon turbulence model and component transport equation was performed. The transportation rate of natural gas was accelerated by wind, with the maximum concentration of natural gas decreasing with an increase in wind velocity. The concentration and distance of natural gas spread increased with an increase in temperature. The use of routing inspection robots for the inspection of natural gas pipe leakage and related parameters were proposed. This work had important implications for future codes and standards relating to the inspection robots of gas pipeline leakage inspection in urban underground utility tunnels.