@Article{cmes.2020.09297,
AUTHOR = {Weitao Zhang, Mengqi Liu, Kaiyi Wang, Fan Zhang, Lei Hou},
TITLE = {Numerical Study on the Gas Leakage and Dispersion at the Street  Intersection of a Building Group},
JOURNAL = {Computer Modeling in Engineering \& Sciences},
VOLUME = {123},
YEAR = {2020},
NUMBER = {3},
PAGES = {1247--1266},
URL = {http://www.techscience.com/CMES/v123n3/39314},
ISSN = {1526-1506},
ABSTRACT = {Accidents involving natural gas leakage and dispersion pose a significant
threat to human life and property. This threat is especially relevant at the street 
intersection at which dense buildings, heavy traffic flow, and complex underground pipe 
networks meet. Scholars have conducted numerous studies on gas leakage and dispersion, 
but investigations of natural gas leakage and dispersion at the street intersection of a 
building group are not in-depth. In this paper, we presented a three-dimensional (3D) 
physical model based on the Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) methodology to study 
the natural gas leakage and dispersion at the street intersection of a building group. We 
validated the CFD methodology applied in the research based on the data from the field 
tests and wind tunnel experiments. Then, we simulated and analyzed the pressure, wind, 
and concentration of natural gas dispersion at the street intersection. The simulation 
results showed that vortex regions, low-pressure zones, and a building group effect could
cause a build-up of natural gas concentration under perpendicular wind direction 
conditions. In addition, the area of hazardous region tended to increase first and then drop
with the dispersion height. In the case of this study, the maximum area of hazardous 
region is 200 m<sup>2</sup> located in the height of 55 m, which is the middle plane in the 
computational domain. The results in the paper can provide scientific references for the 
safe operation and emergency-management decisions of municipal gas.},
DOI = {10.32604/cmes.2020.09297}
}