Sequential Modeling of Liquid Hydrogen Leakage, Dispersion and Post-Ignition Thermal Hazards in Semi-Open Railway Stations
Dapeng Jin1,2, Yuejiao Wang3,*, Bin Liu4, Yichi Zhang5, Sichao Zhang4, Pengbo Yin6,*
1 CRRC Academy (Qingdao) Co., Ltd., Qingdao, China
2 College of Automotive and Energy Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
3 School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Hebei University of Engineering Science, Shijiazhuang, China
4 Hebei Key Laboratory of Cryogenic Energy Storage, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shijiazhuang Tiedao University, Shijiazhuang, China
5 Beijing Xingyou Engineering Project Management Co., Ltd., Beijing, China
6 College of Chemical Engineering, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, China
* Corresponding Author: Yuejiao Wang. Email: 
; Pengbo Yin. Email: 
Fluid Dynamics & Materials Processing https://doi.org/10.32604/fdmp.2026.089244
Received 16 July 2026; Accepted 09 September 2026; Published online 17 September 2026
Abstract
This study develops a sequential numerical modelling framework to elucidate the transient evolution of liquid hydrogen (LH
2) leakage, pool evaporation, hydrogen dispersion, and post-ignition thermal hazards in a representative semi-open railway station. The framework couples a source-term integral model for LH
2 pool evaporation with computational fluid dynamics (CFD), in which the time-dependent liquid-pool radius and evaporation mass flow rate are introduced as transient inlet conditions through a user-defined function. The Realizable
k-
ε turbulence model and species transport equations are employed to predict the subsequent dispersion of gaseous H
2 within the station environment, accounting for the influence of large-span roofs, locomotives, and structural columns on hydrogen migration and retention. At 3.0 s after leakage initiation, the analysis branches into non-ignited dispersion and ignition/combustion scenarios. For the latter, the instantaneous H
2 concentration, temperature, and velocity fields are used to initialize ignition at (−0.7, −3.6, 0.5) m. The results show that the LH
2 evaporation mass flow rate reaches approximately 3.6 kg/s at 3.7–3.8 s, while the liquid-pool radius increases to approximately 1.2 m at 4.2 s. In the non-ignited scenario, the 4 vol% H
2 cloud reaches a front position of 22.42 m and a length of 28.92 m at 9 s, while residual hydrogen continues to migrate and dilute for approximately 200 s. In the ignition/combustion scenario, the maximum flame temperature reaches 2193.5 K at 3.0 s. The combustion analysis is limited to post-ignition thermal effects and does not consider deflagration-induced overpressure or structural response.
Keywords
Liquid hydrogen leakage; transient source term; hydrogen dispersion; thermal hazard; railway station
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