Measurements of Decompression Wave Speed in Natural Gas Containing 2-8% (Mole) Hydrogen by a Specialized Shock Tube

The Battelle two-curve method is widely used throughout the industry to determine the required material toughness to arrest ductile (or tearing) pipe fracture. The method relies on accurate determination of the propagation speed of the decompression wave into the pipeline once the pipe ruptures. GASDECOM is typically used for calculating this speed, and idealizes the decompression process as isentropic and one-dimensional. While GASDECOM was initially validated against quite a range of gas compositions and initial pressure and temperature, it was not developed for mixtures containing hydrogen. Two shock tube tests were conducted to experimentally determine the decompression wave speed in lean natural gas mixtures containing hydrogen. The first test had hydrogen concentration of 2.88% (mole) while the second had hydrogen concentration of 8.28% (mole). The experimentally determined decompression wave speeds from the two tests were found to be very close to each other despite the relatively vast difference in the hydrogen concentrations for the two tests. It was also shown that the predictions of the decompression wave speed using the GERG-2008 equation of state agreed very well with that obtained from the shock tube measurements. It was concluded that there is no effects of the hydrogen concentration (between 0–10% mole) on the decompression wave speed, particularly at the lower part (towards the choked pressure) of the decompression wave speed curve.