University of Cagliari

Faculty of Engineering and Architecture

Chemical Engineering and biotechnological processes

Course of Safety and Environmental Chemical Engineering

Exercise-3 (Safety)

BY Tiegisti Fessehaie Embaie Matricola 70/88/65277

Date 29/12/2022
Exercise 4.3
Air flows from a regulated pressure source at 120 bar through a 100 m long pipe into atmosphere at 1 atm
pressure and 20 °C. The pipe is new commercial steel pipe with an actual inside diameter of 0.5 cm. The pipe
is horizontal. Neglect entrance and exit effects.
(a) Determine if the flow is chocked for both the adiabatic and isothermal cases.
(b) Estimate the mass flow in kg/as for the adiabatic case
Assume fully turbulent flow for which the following equation holds true.

= 4log  3.7 
1 d
f  

For air use a molecular weight of 29 (g/mol).

Solution:
Hint: Use the simplified approach and compare the results with the ones that can be obtained using the
asymptotic solution.
First we can find Fanning friction factor f by assuming turbulent flow by the following expression:-

=> f= 0.009214

where ɛ is a constant( Pipe Roughness Factor) for new commercial steel pipe = 0.046mm and d is the
diameter.

Then we can calculate total loss factor ,considering the losses by frictional losses only:-

= 737.14

Now we can check if the flow is choked or not in both the adiabatic and isothermal case we can use the
following expression to calculate the choked pressure and if Pchoked > outside pressure (p) the flow is
choked.

And the data can be found from the table as you can see below(we take heat capacity ratio(ɤ) of 1.4:-

adiabati isothermaal
A B c A B C
0.965 0.00461 0.944 0.911 0.0118 1.38

From the calculations we can conclude that they are choked

Now we can evaluate the density from the ideal gas law formula:

= 142.7839kg/m3

And also we need to evaluate expansion factor(Y), We use the asymptotic solution of Y=0.7071 for high
velocity head losses and we calculate the mass flux G

The density and expansion factor will be substituted in the following expression in order to find mass flux(
Gchoked ) :-

= 1384.5756kg/s.m2

Finally we can calculate the maximum flowrate:

= 0.0271723 kg/s
Exercise 4.4
The TLV-TWA for hydrogen sulfide gas is 10 ppm. Hydrogen sulfide gas is stored in a tank at 110 psig and
85°F. Estimate the diameter of a hole in the tank leading to a local hydrogen sulfide concentration equal to
the TLV. The local ventilation rate is 2,100 ft3/min and is deemed average. The ambient pressure and
temperature are 1 atm and 25°C, respectively.

Solution:
Hint: be careful with the units of measurement and consider the things learned in the previous chapter.
We can find our mass flow rate from the following expression:-

➔ Qm= 1.3*10-3 kg/s

where all the variables here are given.
Then we can calculate the area of the hole from the following formula:-

Where Co is the discharge coefficient we can assume the worst case (Co =1), Po is the pressure inside the
tank, ɤ is the heat capacity ratio, we can find it from the table for Hydrogen sulphide (ɤ=1.3) and To is the
temperature in the tank

Since we found the area we can find the diameter of the hole .

Diameter = 1.313cm
Exercise 5.1
A pipeline carrying benzene has developed a large leak. Fortunately, the leak occurred in a diked area and
the liquid benzene is contained within the square 60 ft x 40 feet dike. The temperature is 80 °F Fahrenheit
and ambient pressure is1 atm. It is a cloudy night with a 5 mph (miles per hour) wind.
All areas downwind with the concentrations exceeding four times the PEL of 1 ppm must be evacuated.
(a) determine the evaporation rate from the dike
(b) determine the distance downwind that must be evacuated
(c) determine the maximum width (along y) of the evacuation area and the distance downwind where it
occurs.

Solution
We need to find out saturated pressure( Psat) from Antoine equation

Antone equation
a b c
6.90565 1211.033 220.791

Then ,since all the variables are given we can find the evaporation rate from the following formula:-

= 0.450798Kg/s
Then we can calculate the value of σyσz by the formula below ,since we know the downwind concentration
at the center of the cloud:-

=> σyσz = 2516.8m2 (for Downwind, ground centreline)

Then we can search for the distance downwind (x) in which the above σyσz value fits with already
calculated σyσz values from the random x values.

Where σy and σz can be found from the table below by assuming rural scheme and stability class of F.
Now we can Solve for y, which is crosswind direction by divide equation for centreline (downwind) by
equation for ground level :

Finally we can determine the distance downwind that must be evacuated (not exactly but around that value)

X= 2900m
And also the maximum width (along y) of the evacuation area and the distance downwind where that
maximum width occurs are Y= 79.52m and X= 1600m respectively.