Phast: Tutorial Manual

Phast
Tutorial Manual
DNV SOFTWARE
Palace House, 3 Cathedral Street, London SE19DE, UK
http://www.dnv.com/software
Copyright Det Norske Veritas. All Rights Reserved.

No reproduction or broadcast of this material is permitted without the express written consent of DNV.
Contact software.risk@dnv.com for more information.
Contents
Chapter 1 An Introduction to Phast 1

In the first chapter you open an example analysis provided with the program,
explore its main features, and run the calculations and view the results
without having to enter or change any input data.
Chapter 2 Setting up your own Analysis 18

The second chapter guides you through the process of setting up a new Study
Folder and setting up the background map for consequence analysis.
Chapter 3 Performing the Consequence Analysis 23

In the third chapter you define a range of common types of hazardous event
and perform the consequence analysis to obtain the size of the effect zones.
The tutorial supplies all of the input values that you will need to complete the
analysis.
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 1
An Introduction to Phast
What to Expect of this Tutorial

The aim of this tutorial is to make you familiar with the ideas and techniques involved
in performing a consequence analysis with Phast, and to give you practice in defining a
range of common types of hazardous events. By the time you have finished the tutorial
you should have a firm understanding of the issues involved, and be ready to start
work on an analysis of your own.
The tutorial is divided into three chapters. In this first chapter you will open an
example analysis provided with the program, explore its main features, and run the
calculations and view the results without having to enter or change any input data. In
the second chapter you will create a new analysis. First you will set up the background
data, and then in the third chapter you will define a range of hazardous events and
perform a consequence analysis for them.
The tutorial should take 1-2 hours to complete. You do not have to complete it in a
single sitting, and can take a break between chapters if you prefer.
Starting the Program Running

When you install the program, the installation process places a DNV Software folder
under Programs in your Start menu, and also adds a Phast shortcut to your Desktop. You
can use either method to start the program running.
The Main Window

When you start the program running, the main window will open as shown.
The Main Window on Startup
1
In the Message Log it should state that the Licence is valid. You must have a valid
license for Phast set up on your computer in order to be able to enter data and run the
calculations. If the Message Log says that you do not have a valid license, you should
contact product support using the details given under Product Support in the Help menu.
Full instructions for licensing of Phast can be found in the Phast installation notes,
available on the installation CD.
The window will normally open with no Study Folder loaded where a Study
Folder is a file that contains the definition of a consequence analysis and you must
open or create a Study Folder file before you can perform any modelling work with the
program. If you wish, you can change the Installation Preferences under the Options
menu so that the program starts by automatically opening a Study Folder (e.g. the
Study Folder you worked on most recently).
Opening the Phast Example Study Folder

The program is supplied with an example
Study Folder called Phast Example
Study, which is used in this chapter to
give a quick introduction to the
terminology and approach used in the
program.
To open the Study Folder, choose Open
Example from the File menu. A File Open
dialog displays the contents of the Examples folder installed with the program files.
Select the Tutorials folder to get to the Phast Example study. There are two file-formats
available for Study Folder files (.psu and .psc) but the default format is the *.psu format,
and the Phast Example Study file is in this format. Select the file, and click on Open.
The appearance of the main window changes when a Study Folder is open: there are
many more toolbars, and there is a pane with five tab sections at the left side of the
window, as shown. The pane is known as the Study Tree pane, and you work in its
various tab sections to set up the input data for the analysis.
The Main Window with a Study Folder Open
2
The Study Tree Pane

The Study Tree pane allows you to organise and edit the input data for your
consequence analysis. The pane contains a number of tab sections, each of which
covers a different type of input data, and these tab sections are described below.
The Models Tab Section
The term Model is used in two different ways in
Phast, though these different meanings are
unlikely to cause you confusion.
Model: a set of available calculations
The program has several different sets of
calculations available, and each of these sets is
known as a separate Model and has its own icon.
For example, there is a Model known as the
Vessel/Pipe Source Model that has a blue icon
that represents a process vessel; this Model
considers the release of material from its storage or
process conditions in a vessel or pipe, through all
the stages in its dispersion to a harmless
concentration, and it also performs fire, explosion
and toxic calculations to obtain representative
effect zones for the dispersing cloud. There is
another Model known as the Fireball Model that
has a red and yellow icon that represents a fireball
flame; this Model considers only the radiation
effect zones from a fireball, and does not perform
any of the release and dispersion modelling
performed by the Vessel/Pipe Source Model.
There are eleven different types of Model in total.
You define a given hazardous event that you want to analyse by selecting the most
suitable Model from the list of the eleven Models. When you select the Model from the
list, the program will insert an icon for that Model into the Models tab section. The icon
represents an instance of that Model and will have its own set of values for the input
data, and you can define any number of instances of a given Model in your Study
Folder, each with its own set of input data to represent a particular hazardous event.
As shown in the illustration, the Phast Example Study Study Folder contains ten instances
of one Model (the Vessel/Pipe Source Model), and one instance of each of eight other
kinds of Model.
Model: one instance of a particular type of calculation Model
In practice, people rarely use the term instance to refer to a given use of a particular
Model, and instead refer to the instance directly as a Model, so it would be more
typical to say that the Phast Example Study Study Folder contains ten Vessel/Pipe Source
Models, one Warehouse Model, one Pool Fire Model, one Fireball Model, one Jet Fire
Model, one Baker-Strehlow Explosion Model, etc.
The Model icons are organised in a tree structure. The top level represents the entire
Study Folder, with the name Phast Example Study, the next level is the Study (named
example), the third level contains several Folders, and the fourth level contains the
3
Models themselves. You can create any number of Studies or Folders, depending on
how you want to organise your analysis.
Inserting a Model
You cannot place a Model icon under the Study Folder itself, but
only under a Study or Folder. To add a Model at a particular point
in the structure, select the Study or Folder, and then select the
appropriate Model from the Insert menu as shown. You can also
insert a Model by selecting the Model from the Insert cascade at the
top of the right-click menu, or by selecting the icon for the Model
from the toolbar.
The Weather Tab Section

The Weather tab section contains a folder named Global
Weathers with three definitions of weather conditions. The
name of each weather gives the atmospheric stability
category and the wind speed that are set for it. The program
performs a separate run of the consequence calculations for
each separate weather conditions, giving a set of results that
are specific to that Weather.
The Weather tab section also contains a Study icon called
Example Cases. In the Model tab section, all of the Models have been placed inside the
Example Cases Study, but you create and use any number of Studies in an analysis.
You can insert Weathers underneath a Study in the Weather tab section. Such Weathers
are known as Local Weathers, whereas those in the Global Weathers folder are known
as Global Weathers. When the program is processing the consequence calculations
for a given Model, it will perform the calculations for every Global Weather and for
any Local Weathers under the Study that contains the Model, i.e. the Local Weathers
are specific to the Models in that particular Study.
The Parameters Tab Section
In Phast, Parameters are background inputs that are
applied to all calculations and are not specific to a
particular Model.
As with the Weathers, there is a set of Global
Parameters, and you can also define Local Parameters
that are specific to a given Study. If you define a local
set of Explosion Parameters, for example, the values in
this set will be used instead of the values for the global
Explosion Parameters during the calculations for the
Models in that Study.
Green border to icon: shows use of default values
All of the icons in the Global Parameters folder have green borders. The program uses this
border to show that all of the Parameters under that icon are using the default values
that are supplied with the program. If you change the value of any of the Parameters
then the green border around the icon will disappear. This allows you to see at a glance
which aspects of an analysis are using all-default values, and which are using changed
values.
4
The Materials Tab Section

The program is supplied with a set of System
Materials that contains full property data for more
than sixty materials. However, the Materials tab
section does not show icons for all of these materials,
but only for materials that have been selected in the
input data for the various Models in the Study
Folder, or for materials that you have added yourself
while working in the Material tab section.
Phast currently only allows you to define Global
Materials, and the same set of Materials data will be
used in the calculations for all Model. You cannot
currently define Local Materials to be used only for
the Models in a given Study.
There are three types of icon present in the Material tab section of the Phast Example
Study Study Folder:
Green Icon: a Pure Material
The eight green icons are all pure Materials. Each icon has a green border, which shows
that all of the input fields for the material have the values set for that material in the
System Materials. You can change the values if you wish - e.g. to enter different probit
values for a toxic material and if you make changes the green border will disappear.
All of the icons in the Phast Example Study Study Folder are for pure materials that are
supplied in the System Parameters, but the program also allows you to add your own
materials.
Yellow-and-Red Icon: a Mixture
The yellow-and-red icon is a Mixture, and in the Phast Example Study Folder it
represents the plume of hydrogen chloride, nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide
produced by a fire in a pesticide warehouse which is the situation modelled by the
Warehouse Fire Model.
This particular Mixture is generated automatically when you run the Warehouse Fire
Model, but you can also define your own Mixtures, using any combination of the
materials in Phast, and select these Mixtures for use in the dispersion, fire and
explosion calculations.
Pink Icon: a Pesticide
The six pink icons are all Pesticides, and are used to describe the contents of the
warehouse for the Warehouse Fire Model. Pesticides are only relevant to the
Warehouse Fire Model and cannot be selected for any other type of modelling.
5
The Map Tab Section

The Map tab section allows you to set up map image and geographic data so that you
can view the regions and features affected by consequence results.
The map image is defined by the powerstation raster image, and you view the image by
selecting Map from the View menu. The Map Window will open in the area to the right
of the Study Tree pane, and you can use the options in the Map menu, the right-click
menu and the Map toolbar to zoom in and out, to move around in the Map Window,
and to control the display of the features of the window such as the scale bar and the
legend.
The Map tab section and the Map Window
The Models are represented by dots on the Map. These dots can sometimes be difficult
to see and to relate to the individual Models, but there are several options that can
make this easier:
Changing the Size and Colour of the Dots
Select Map from the Preferences cascade
of the Options menu to open the Map
Preferences dialog, and then move to
the Model tab section.
By default the colour is turquoise and
the Point Size is 7 pixels, but if you
change the colour to blue and the size
to 10 pixels as shown, then the dots will
be easier to see on the powerstation Map.
Displaying the Model Names on the Map
If you move to the Models tab section, select any Model, and then select Labels from the
View menu, the names of all of the Models will be displayed on the Map. To hide the
names, deselect the Labels option.
If there is more than one Model at a given location as with the Chlorine Models and the
Butadiene Models then the names will be superimposed and may be difficult to read,
although this will make it clear that there are multiple Models at the location.
6
Pinpointing an Individual Model

If you select a Model in the Study Tree and then select Pinpoint from the View menu (or
press the F4 key), the dot for that Model will become centred in the Map window and
will also be highlighted (i.e. displayed in a light turquoise colour). This allows you to
locate a specific Model, which is useful if you cannot identify the name for that Model
on the Map.
You can close the Map Window by selecting Close All from the Window menu.
Viewing Input Data

The section above introduced the main types of input data and their organisation, and
this section describes how to work on the details of the input data.
Opening the Input Dialog for the Chlorine Rupture Model
Move to the Models tab section and double-click on the icon for the Model named
Chlorine Rupture. The Vessel/Pipe input dialog will open as shown below.
The dialog contains a large number of input fields organised over seventeen tab
sections, but many of these fields are relevant only to advanced modelling options (e.g.
for a sensitivity analysis), and you will typically only need to supply a small set of
input data when defining a Model for use in an analysis, as you will see in the next
chapter.
Input Dialog for the Chlorine Rupture Model
7
Getting Help on the Input Data

This tutorial does not attempt to describe every item on input data, but the program is
supplied with comprehensive online Help.
Every input dialog contains a Help button at the bottom right. When you click on this
button, the online Help will appear in a separate window, as shown.
The Help Window
The Help Window will be displaying a description of the current tab section, but you
can use the links inside the topic and the Contents, Index and Search tabs to reach any
topic in the Help system and gain a full understanding of the way that the input data
will be used in the calculations and the appropriate values that you should set for the
hazardous events that you want to model.
There are some tab sections that appear in the input dialog for more than one Model.
For example, the Material tab section is used for both the Vessel/Pipe Source Model,
the User-Defined Source Model and the Bleve Blast Model. The Help is written in order
to give full guidance for either Model, so there may be references in the Help to
features that are not currently relevant to you.
After you have finished exploring the input dialog, click on Cancel to close the input
dialog without saving any changes you might have made. If you wish, you can move
to the other tab sections and explore the input dialogs for other types of data.
8
Running the Calculations and Viewing the Results

In the Models tab section, select the Example Cases Study, and select the Models option
from the Run menu.
The program will process the calculations for each of the eighteen Models in turn,
performing the calculations for each of the three Global Weathers, and showing the
progress through the calculations. When the calculations for a given Model have been
completed for all three Weathers, the name of that Model will change from black to
blue, which is the colour-coding that the program uses to show that a Model has run
successfully and has a complete set of results. The calculations will take several
minutes to complete, depending on the speed of your machine.
You do not have to run the calculations for all Models and all Weathers. If you select a
single Model or folder, then you can run the calculations just for that Model or for the
Models in that folder, or you can select Batch/Weather Setup from the Run menu to select
Models across different folders or to select only specific Weathers. The selection of
Weathers in the Setup dialog will be used for all calculations, but the selection of
Models will be used only when you select Batch Run from the Run menu.
Viewing the Graphs for the Chlorine and Butadiene Releases
Select the Vessels or Pipe Sources folder and then select
Graph from the View menu, from the right-click
menu or the toolbars. A dialog will appear as shown,
prompting you to chose the weather conditions whose
results you want to view.
If you had selected a single Model rather than a folder
with multiple Models, then the dialog would have
checkboxes next to the Weathers instead of radio
buttons, and you would be able to compare the results
for several Weathers for that Model. If you choose a
single Weather in this situation, then the graphs will
have additional features that are not available when
you are viewing the results for multiple Models or
Weathers.
For this example, select the F 1.5m/s Weather. This is the weather with the most stable
conditions, and is likely to give the longest dispersion distances. When you click on OK
there will be a pause of a few seconds, and then the Graph Window will open as
shown in the space to the right of the Study Tree pane.
The Graph Window
9
The Graph Window will usually contain many tab sections, each with a different type
of graph. The tab sections included for a particular combination of Model will depend
on the type of the Models (e.g. Vessel/Pipe Source Model or Fireball Model), on the
type of the materials (toxic or flammable), and on the details of the dispersion and
effect behaviour (e.g. whether or not liquid rainout occurs). The Chlorine Models have
graphs for cloud concentration and for toxic effects. Butadiene Models have graphs for
cloud concentration and for flammable effects, such as jet fire, fireball, flash fire and
explosion effects.
The Concentration Graphs
The first graph is of centreline concentration. This will be showing the results at the
time at which the cloud footprint covers the greatest area, which occurs at a different
time for each weather.
The graph will initially be showing results only for the four Chlorine Models. In the
dispersion calculations, the program uses an averaging time that takes into account
changes in wind direction over the course of the release, to give an average
concentration at a given location, and it uses different averaging times for toxic and for
flammable materials, reflecting the different time-scales that are relevant to each type
of release. The concentration graphs always display results calculated with a specific
averaging time, which is displayed in the legend for the graph. The default averaging
time for this set of results is the Toxic averaging time, and the Butadiene Models were
not modelled with that time so have no results to display.
To view the concentration results for the Butadiene
Models, you must change the selection of averaging
time to display. To do this, select Properties from the
right-click menu or the Graph menu to open the Plot
Properties dialog, and then move to the Averaging
Times tab section as shown.
If you change to the Flammable Averaging Time, the
graph will display the results for the four Butadiene
Models only.
The User Defined option will also be enabled, which
shows that some of the Models have a user-defined
averaging time defined in the Location tab section. In
fact, all of them have such a time defined, and if you select User Defined as the
averaging time for the graphs, the graph will display results for all eight Models.
Results Displayed on the Map
After the six tab sections that show the results in terms of concentration, the next tab
section is the Map graph, which allows you to view different types of effect zones
superimposed on the map.
When you first move to the Map tab section, the Map graph will be displaying Cloud
Footprint results for a concentration of 10,000 ppm for the Toxic averaging time, and
the only results displayed will be for the Chlorine Rupture and Chlorine Liquid Leak Models.
The other Chlorine Models dont produce this concentration level at the default height
of ground level as you can see from the Sideview graph but if you open the Plot
Properties dialog, move to the Distance tab and set the Height to 10 m, results for the
Chlorine Vapour Leak and Chlorine Relief Valve Models will also appear in the plot.
10
The Footprint concentration results are the

default form of results for the Map graph, but
the Event field in the Display tab section of
the Plot Properties dialog allows you to
change to a different form, as shown. The list
of types of effect will depend on the types of
Models that are covered by the Graph, and
will be similar to the range of tab sections in
the Graph window.
If you select Outdoor Toxic effects, then the
Radiation/Toxic field will become enabled
and you can choose between dose, probit and
lethality results.
If you view the Lethality

footprint on the Map, you
will see that the Chlorine Liquid
Leak gives the greatest
downwind effect distance
for lethality. The Rupture
Model produces higher peak
concentrations at any given
downwind location, but the
short duration of the rupture
means that the total dose
received is lower than for
the leak.
The Map graph initially
shows the effect zone with a
northerly wind, but you can choose Wind Direction from the Graph menu or the right-click
menu to change the wind direction.
The Pool Vaporisation graph does not show any hazardous effect distances, but the
Toxic graph and the various Fire and Explosion graphs all include footprint-results of
the form shown on the map, and most of them also include graphs that show the effect-
level along the cloud centre-line as a function of distance downwind (e.g. radiation
level for a jet fire, or lethality for a toxic release).
If you look through the Fire and Explosion graphs, you will see that the greatest
downwind effect distance is reached by the Late Explosion Worst Case for the Butadiene
Rupture Model, which reaches a distance of about 880 m downwind. A late explosion is
one that occurs after the cloud has started dispersing away from the release point, and
by default the explosion is assumed to be centred at the cloud front, which means that
the explosion radius will reach beyond the flammable region of the cloud. The
program calculates the results for such an explosion at regular intervals, and the Worst
Case graph displays the results for the ignition-time that gives the greatest downwind
effect distance.
11
Viewing the Reports for the Butadiene Rupture Model

The program also presents results in the form of reports. If you wish you can view a
report that covers multiple Models e.g. a report for all of the Chlorine and Butadiene
Models but if you want to compare the report-results for different Models it is easier
to view separate reports for each Model and compare between two reports.
To view the reports for the Butadiene Rupture Model, select the Model and then select
Report from the View menu or from the right-click menu or the toolbars. After a pause of
a few seconds, the Report Window will open to the right of the Study Tree pane as
shown. The Report Window will probably hide the Graph Window, but you can use
the options in the Window menu to move between the windows. You can have any
number of Graph Windows and Report Windows open at the same time.
The Report Window
Similar to the Graph Window, the Report Window will normally contain several types
of results presented in different tab sections. A given tab section will present the results
for all of the weather conditions that have been processed for the Model.
For the Butadiene Rupture Model, the first tab section is the Input tab section, which lists
the input data. The Audit tab section gives version details for the program, for
parameters and materials, but all of the other tab sections give details of the
consequence results that you saw summarised in the Graph window:
The Summary Report
This report summarises the
maximum downwind
distance to different types of
effects, and gives a direct
comparison between the
different weather conditions.
For the Butadiene Rupture, D 5m/s
is the weather that gives the
greatest distances, although
the difference between the
three weathers is small.
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The Discharge Report

This gives details of the discharge modelling, and the condition of the release
immediately after expansion to atmospheric pressure which is the condition used for
the start of the dispersion calculations.
This report and all the other results-reports give the results for each weather in turn.
The Summary report is the only report which presents a direct comparison between the
different weathers.
The Dispersion Report
This report contains a table which describes the location and state of the cloud at a
series of time-steps during the dispersion. You might refer to this report if you wanted
to understand a particular aspect of the dispersion behaviour in greater depth.
The Commentary Report
This report highlights the
main events in the course of
the dispersion, and allows you
to see easily if and when
different types of behaviour
occurred, e.g. touch-down on
the ground, or the rainout of
liquid droplets.
The Averaging Times Report
The centreline concentrations given in the Dispersion and Commentary reports are all
calculated using a core averaging time that is set in the Dispersion Parameters and
that has a default value of 18.75 s. The Averaging Times report gives the centreline
concentrations at a series of steps during the dispersion, calculated using alternative
averaging times.
For the Butadiene Rupture these alternative times are the Flammable Averaging Time
(whose value is set in the Flammable Parameters) and the User-Defined Averaging
Time (whose value is set in the Location tab section for the Model). In this analysis
both of these times are also set to 18.75 s so for all the Butadiene Models the Averaging
Times report gives the same concentrations as the other reports. However, if you
viewed the report for one of the Chlorine Models, you would see results for the Toxic
Averaging Time (whose value is set in the Toxic Parameters), and which has the
default value of 600 s.
The Fireball Report
The Fireball report gives radiation results for a fireball resulting from immediate
ignition of the released material. The report first gives a description of the fireball
flame (emissive power, liftoff height, etc.), then it gives the dimensions of the elliptical
effect zones for up to five different radiation levels where the levels are set in the
Fireball tab section for the Model and finally gives the radiation levels at a series of
points downwind from the centreline of the release.
The Jet Fire and Pool Fire reports have a similar form, giving the same three types of
results.
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The Early Explosion Report

For Butadiene Rupture, the tab for the Early Explosion report is named Early Expl.(TNT), and
this is because the explosion method selected for this Model is the TNT method. There
are three methods available, and you select between them in the Flammable tab section
for the Model. The TNT method is the simplest, requiring the smallest amount of input
data, and it is the default method.
The report is similar in form to the Fireball report, giving the dimensions of the circular
effect zones for up to five explosion overpressures where the overpressures are set in
the Explosion Parameters and also giving the overpressure levels at a series of points
downwind from the centreline of the release.
The Late Explosion Report
This report gives the overpressure effect distances for late explosions occuring at a
range of times during the dispersion. For each ignition time, the report gives the
location of the cloud-centre, the location of the centre of the explosion, the downwind
distance to up to five overpressure levels, and the flammable mass in the cloud at the
time of the explosion. By default the centre of the explosion is taken as the cloud front
to 50% of the LFL, but you can change this setting in the Explosion Parameters.
Results for Two Time-Steps in the Late Explosion Report
The ignition-time that gives the greatest downwind effect distance is the one presented
in the Worst Case Late Explosion graph, as described in the section above.
The range of reports presented for a particular Model will depend on the type of Model
and on the behaviour of a release, and there are additional reports that do not appear
for the Butadiene Rupture Model. For example, if the material is toxic then there will be a
Toxic report with a table of dose, probit and lethality results as a function of
downwind distance, and if the liquid in the release rains out to form a pool, then there
will be reports describing the spreading and evaporation of the pool and describing the
series of dispersion segments used to represent the vapour produced from the pool.
For most of your work with the program you will probably refer mainly to the graphs,
since they present the results in the most direct form and allow easy comparison
between different Models and Weathers.
After you have finished examining the results, you can use Close All from the Window
menu to close the windows.
14
Viewing the Results for the Chimney Release and Long Pipeline Models
The other two Vessel/Pipe Source Models in the Phast Example Study Study Folder
illustrate some of the special modelling features that are available.
The Chimney Release Model
This models a release of methane from a chimney stack on top of a building, and takes
into account the effects of the building wake on the dispersion.
If you view the graphs
for the Model for all
three Weathers and then
move to the Sideview
graph, you will see an
outline of the building
with the chimney on top,
and with the three
plumes emerging from
the chimney.
The building wake
produces a zone of low
pressure, and this pulls the plumes downwards. The model deals with this by
adjusting the height at a specific downwind distance, which is 100 m in this case. In
some situations the plume may be pulled down low enough that all or part of the
plume is entrained in the building wake, but that has not occurred for any of the
weathers for this Model.
The Sideview graph shows that the plumes never approach closer to the ground than
about 58 m, but if you look at the Explosion graphs and the Flash Fire graph, you will
see Worst Case Late Explosion distances of over 900 m, and Flash Fire distances of
about 600 m to 50% of the LFL. When performing the modelling of late explosions and
flash fires, the program can calculate the flammable footprint of the cloud either at the
cloud centreline or at a specific height. The centreline method is selected by default in
the Flammable Parameters since this will give the most conservative results, but you
should check the Sideview graph and make a judgement about whether or not the
effect zone would actually reach the areas of interest for your analysis. A flash fire in a
plume 60 m in the air would not affect people on the ground, but an explosion in such
a plume might well produce significant overpressures at ground level.
The Long Pipeline Model
This models the rupture of a 250 m propane pipeline that has a pumped flowrate of 10
kg/s, where the rupture occurs 100 m downstream from the pump. The program
performs discharge modelling for the complex, time-dependent flow regime inside the
ruptured pipeline and then performs dispersion modelling for a representative
averaged discharge rate.
Select the Model, and view the graphs for the F 1.5m/s weather. For this analysis the
discharge calculations are the same for all weather conditions, so you only need to
view one weather if you are only interested in the discharge results.
The first tab section in the Graph window will be the Long Pipeline tab. This contains a
large number of sub-tabs, each of which shows the behaviour of a particular discharge
variable against time. Move to the Flowrate sub-tab, since this shows the behaviour of
the most important variable.
15
The Flowrate graph appears

to show the flowrate
dropping instantly from
about 230 kg/s to about 10
kg/s, as shown. However, it
is difficult to tell whether or
not the drop is instant
because the default scale on
the time axis goes up to
nearly a 3700 seconds. To
see the initial behaviour in
more detail, you must set
the scale yourself.
Select Scale and Labels from the right-click menu or the Graph menu to open the Scale
dialog, then uncheck the option for Automatic Scaling and set the Maximum Time to
60 s.
With the changed
scale, you can see that
the rate takes about 45
s to drop to a steady
rate of 10 kg/s, which
is the pump rate.
There are five lines
plotted on the graph,
and their meaning may
not be immediately
obvious. The two A
lines describe the 100 m pipe-section upstream of the rupture, the two B lines describe
the 150 m section downstream of the rupture, and the Total line is the sum of the rate
released from the two sections. The two Upstream lines show the pumped inflow into
the section, which is 10 kg/s for Section A and zero for Section B, and the two Orifice
lines show the flow from that section at the point of rupture. If you want to hide any of
these lines (e.g. the Upstream lines), open the Plot Property dialog and deselect the lines
in the Long Pipe tab section.
For the first nine seconds, the orifice flowrates from both sides are almost identical, as
the flash-front travels along each section at a similar speed, giving a similar flow-
regime. However, at 9 s the flash-front reaches the end of section A, and from this
point onwards the pressure profile in that section is maintained at the profile produced
by a pumped flowrate of 10 kg/s; the program stops the discharge calculations for
Section A at this point which means that there are no results available to display on the
graph after 9 s, but the 10 kg/s flow from Section A is added in to the Total, as you can
see.
If you move to the Distance sub-tab, you can see that the flash-front reaches the end of
Section B after 14 s. However, the calculations do not stop for Section B at this point,
and proceed to model the depressurisation of the section until it has emptied
completely at 45 s.
16
If you view the Discharge report for the Model, you will see that the average rate used
to represent the behaviour is 10.5 kg/s, taken over a time-scale of one hour. This may
underestimate the hazard produced by the release, and there are options available for
representing a time-varying release with more than one release segment so that you
can investigate the significance of the type of short-term behaviour seen in this release.
These options are described in more detail in the next chapter.
Viewing the Results for the Other Models
The other eight Models in the Study Folder are not Source Models. Each models one
specific type of behaviour and will produce a fixed set of graphs and reports.
The Warehouse Fire Model
This models a fire in a pesticide warehouse and you can define multiple scenarios for
each warehouse, where each fire scenario is defined by the surface area of pesticide
involved and by the duration of the fire. There are special calculations that determine
the release rate and composition for the toxic plume produced by the fire, and the
dispersion and effects of this plume are then modelled in the same way as for the toxic
cloud for the four Chlorine Models.
The Three Flammable Models
The Pool Fire, Fireball and Jet Fire Models perform the same type of radiation modelling as
that associated with a Source Model, but they give you more control over the definition
of the flame and they also allow you to specify in more detail the locations for which
you want to calculation the radiation levels.
The Four Explosion Models
The Baker-Strehlow, Multi-Energy and TNT Models perform the same type of vapour-cloud
explosion modelling as that associated with a Source Model, but they give you more
control over the definition of the flammable cloud and of the results-locations.
The BLEVE Blast Model calculates the overpressure levels produced by the rupture of a
vessel under flame impingement, which is a type of explosion modelling that is not
performed for a Source Model.
The form of the results for all of these Models is similar to the corresponding
dispersion, toxic, fire and explosion results for a Source Model, and you should find
interpreting the graphs and reports very straightforward.
You have now seen the main features of Phast. When you are ready you should
proceed to Chapter 2, which takes you through the stages in setting up your own
analysis.
17
Chapter 2:Setting up your own Analysis
Chapter 2
Setting up your own Analysis
The Form of the Analysis

This chapter will guide you through the process of setting up a Study Folder for
performing consequence calculations. The tutorial supplies all of the input values that
you will need to complete the analysis.
The Models Defined in the Analysis
The main aim of the analysis is to show you how you can define Models to represent
the most common types of hazardous event, and how to take into account the main
variables. The types of hazardous event that are considered in the analysis are as
follows:
A rupture of a vessel containing a toxic material
A pipework leak from the liquid side of a vessel containing a toxic material
A pipework leak from the gas side of a vessel containing a toxic material
The equivalent three releases for a vessel containing a flammable material
The rupture of a propane tank wagon under normal operating conditions.
A fireball or BLEVE of the propane tank wagon as a result of fire impingement.
A liquid leak from the body of the propane tank wagon.
If you wish, you can omit events, define different events, or change the input values in
order to define conditions that are more typical of your facility. However, if you do this
you will obtain results that are different from those that will be shown in this manual.
Creating a new Study Folder

To create a new Study Folder, select New from the File menu or the Toolbar. The
program will close the Phast Example Study Study Folder and a new Study Folder will
open, with a name shown as Untitled.
Saving the Study Folder
You cannot save the Study Folder with the name Untitled and should save it with a
real name immediately.
Select Save As from the File menu. The File Save dialog will appear and
you should locate the DNVuser folder (the default location for saving
Study Folder files), use the Create New Folder option to create a folder with
your name, and then save the new file to this folder with the name Tutorial and the
default file format of *.psu.
18
The Contents of a new Study Folder

New Study Folder files are not empty but will have some default data set up:
A Global Weather Folder containing three Weathers
The weathers are the same as those in the Phast Example Study Study Folder.
A Set of Default Parameters
As with the Phast Example Study Study Folder, there is a set of Global Parameters, all of
which are using the default values.
Setting up the Map Data

The tutorial uses a map of an area near two rivers, in a country which has a national
grid system. The image for this map is supplied with the program the form of a *.tif file.
If you have an image file for the area around your facility, you might prefer to use that
instead.
Inserting the Raster Image
Image files that contain a description of each pixel in the image are known as raster
images, and most common image files are in this form, e.g. *.tif, *.bmp, *.gif files. The
program can also display map data taken from a GIS Database, where an image is
defined by describing the lines that form the image.
The process of inserting a raster image into a Study Folder is very different from the
process of inserting a connection to a GIS Database. This tutorial deals only with raster
images, and you should refer to the online Help for details of working with GIS
Databases.
The process of inserting the raster images involves several stages.
Ensure that there is a Raster Image Set in the Map tab section
If the Map tab section does not already contain a Raster Image Set icon, select the Tutorial
icon at the top of the tab section, and use the Insert menu to insert a Set.
The Set is a folder for raster images, and you have to insert raster images inside such a
folder.
Insert a Raster Image inside the Set
Select the Set, then select Raster Image from the Insert menu. A dialog will appear as
shown, and you must browse to locate the image file. The tutorial.tif file is located in the
Examples folder for the installation of the program (which is typically under C:\Program
Files\DNVS\PHAST_6_6_0_XXX\Examples\maps\tutorial.tif). When you first browse to this folder
you will not see any files, since the list of File types is not set to *.tif by default.
19
When you have selected a valid raster image file, the Placement Mode fields will
become enabled; these are options for specifying the map co-ordinates covered by the
image. Some files contain georeference data or header data that you can use to set the
co-ordinate data for the image, but the tutorial.tif file does not and the only option
available is the Interactive option, which is available for any raster image file.
20
Selecting a Co-ordinate System for the Map

When you click on OK in the Place dialog, a dialog called the Co-ordinate system
wizard will open; this is the first step in selecting a co-ordinate system for the
analysis. It is only essential to select a system if the Placement Mode is set to
Georeferenced or to By Header, or if you want to use a GIS database in the analysis.
When you are using the Interactive Placement Mode and will not be connecting to a
GIS database which is the situation in this tutorial - you can click on Cancel in the
Wizard dialog and leave the co-ordinate system undefined.
The Wizard dialog contains a Help button, and this gives you a quick way of viewing an
overview of the user and definition of co-ordinate systems in Phast.
Placing the Image in the Map Window
When you click on Cancel in the
Wizard dialog, there will be brief
pause and the Map Window will
then open to the right of the Study
Tree pane.
The cursor will be in the form of
crosshairs, and you must drag
and drop to place the image in the
window. This sets the initial
values for the map co-ordinates
for the images, which you will set
to the correct values in the next
step.
Setting the Co-ordinates and Size of the Image
Double-click on the tutorial icon to open the input dialog for the
image, move to the Geometry tab section, and set the values
shown. The origin for a map image is the top-left corner, and
the values are in the national co-ordinate system for the
country.
When you click on OK the image will probably disappear from the Map Window
because it has moved to a location beyond the scope of the window. Select Fit > All
from the Map menu, and the Map Window will change to display the image covered by
the image; if the menu bar does not include a Map option, click on the Map Window to
make sure it is selected, and the Map menu will appear in the menu bar.
Setting a Large Number of Significant Figures for Edit Dialogs
The co-ordinate values for the image will be in the national co-ordinate system for the
country, and the values for the area covered by the map are six-digit numbers. By
default, input dialogs display only four significant figures of any number that you are
editing, and with this setting you will find it difficult to be sure that you have entered
the co-ordinates.
To change the setting for the number of significant figures, select Preferences > General
from the Options menu and move to the Miscellaneous tab. The first field in the tab
section is the Number of significant figures for edit windows, and you should make
sure that this is set to six or more.
21
Click on OK to close the General Preferences dialog and return to the Map tab section. If
you open the dialog for the raster image again, you will be able to see that the values
that you entered were stored in full.
The Location of the Site on the Map
For the tutorial, the facility occupies the long, narrow section of land to the north and
west of The Village, between the east bank of the river and the road that runs parallel
to the river, shown shaded yellow in the illustration.
The Location of the Facility on the Map
22
Chapter 3
Performing the Consequence Analysis
Defining the First Model: for a Toxic Rupture

In the Tutorial.psu Study Folder, move to the Models tab section. The first Model you will
define represents the rupture of a vessel containing a toxic material, which is one of
several Models dealing with a toxic material.
The vessel is a sphere with a radius of 3.37 m and volume of 120 m3 and a maximum
fill-level of 85%, containing chlorine at saturation conditions and ambient temperature.
The sphere is located near the centre of the site and is elevated 4 m above the ground.
There is no bund surrounding the sphere.
Insert a Folder to Group Toxic Releases
Select the Study icon, then select Folder from the Insert menu or the toolbar to insert a
folder. Use Rename from the Edit menu or the right-click menu (or press the F2 key), and
give the folder the name Toxic. You will place all of the Models that represent toxic
releases in this folder.
Turn on the Option to Insert Models on the Map
In the Options menu, select the option to Insert Models on Map. By default this option is
turned off, and when you insert a Model the icon will appear immediately in the Study
Tree. If you turn the option on, then the Model icon will not appear in the Study Tree
until you have clicked on the Map to set the location for the Model.
In this tutorial you will insert the Models on the Map in approximately the correct
location, and then correct the location as necessary in the input dialog.
Insert a Vessel/Pipe Source Model
Select the Toxic folder, then select Vessel or Pipe
Source from the Insert menu or the right-click
menu. The Map window will open if it is not
already open and the cursor will turn to
crosshairs, and you should click at a point near
the centre of the site as shown to place the
Model.
After you have clicked, an icon will be added to
the Study Tree, and a dot will appear on the
Map to show the location of the Model. Rename
the icon to Cl2 Rupture.
The icon will have a red border around it, showing that it does not have a full set of
input data. You will not be able to run the consequence calculations for the Model until
you have supplied values for all of the mandatory input fields, as will be described
below.
You use the Vessel/Pipe Source Model when you want to perform dispersion and
effects calculations for a release from containment and you want to use the programs
in-built discharge calculations to determine the state of the material after expansion to
atmospheric pressure, which is the state required for the start of the dispersion
calculations.
23
The program contains a second Source Model which is called the User Defined Source
Model. This Model does not perform discharge calculations, but instead allows you to
specify directly the state of the material after expansion to atmospheric pressure. You
use it if you want greater control over the inputs to the dispersion and effect
calculations, as will be described later in this chapter.
Setting the Input Data
Double-click on the icon for the Model to open the input dialog.
All of the fields in the first tab section are blank, and those that are enabled have red
borders. A field with a red border is a mandatory field: you must supply a value for
such a field, and you will not be able to run the calculations for a Model that has any
mandatory fields unset.
This section describes each tab section in turn, including those that are not relevant to
this particular hazardous event. Click on the Help button to open the online Help if you
want further information at any point.
The Material Tab Section
To set the Discharge Material, click on the button with three dots to the right of the
Discharge Material field, and select CHLORINE from the list that appears. The list
contains all of the materials that are defined in the System Materials.
The vessel is a sphere with a volume of 120 m3. This Model will represent the vessel
with the maximum degree of filling, which is 85%. Select Volume as the method of
specifying the Inventory, and enter a value of 102 m3.
The chlorine is held under saturation
conditions at atmospheric temperature.
The temperature will vary depending on
the season and time of day, but for this
Model a value of 10oC will be used as
representative. To set these Process Conditions, choose Saturated Liquid from the first
dropdown list and Temperature from the second dropdown list, and set the Temperature
to 10 degC, as shown. When you move the cursor away from the Temperature field the
program will calculate the saturation pressure for this temperature and display it in the
Pressure field.
To define the process conditions for a material that is not held under saturation
conditions (e.g. a gas or a padded liquid), you must select both Temperature and Pressure
from the lists and give values for both.
The Scenario Tab Section
You use this tab section to specify the type of hazardous event you want to model. The
range of types available will depend on the process conditions you have specified.
There is only one Scenario Type available for modelling the rupture of a pressurised
vessel; this is Catastrophic Rupture, which is selected by default. The other scenarios
are either longer-duration releases, or applicable only to insulated tanks.
24
The vessel is out of doors, so you can leave the

Outdoor / In-Building fields with the default
selection of Outdoor. If you select In-Building
Release, the program will model the build-up
of concentration inside the building and the
dispersion calculations will start with the state
of the plume as it is released from the
ventilation system.
The other fields in the tab section are not
relevant to a rupture scenario. You can take the
default settings for all of the fields in this tab
section.
The Pipe Tab Section
All of the fields in this tab section are disabled when the scenario is set to Rupture.
They are relevant only to the Line Rupture, Disc Rupture, Relief Valve and Long
Pipeline scenarios, as you will see later.
The Vessel Tab Section
All of the fields in this tab section are disabled when the scenario is set to Rupture. For
all of the other scenarios, some of the fields in the tab section will be enabled, with the
combination depending on the scenario as you will see later.
The Location Tab Section
The Elevation has a default value of 1 m, taken from the System Parameters, but you
should set this to 7.37 m, which is the elevation of the centre of the sphere above the
ground.
The program requires a criterion for stopping the dispersion calculations: either a
maximum distance, or a minimum concentration. For this tutorial, set the
Concentration of interest to 100 ppm. When you set this concentration, the Uses
averaging time field below the concentration will acquire a red border, showing that it
is mandatory; you must specify the averaging time to be used in the calculations for
stopping the dispersion. For a toxic release, the list allows you to choose the Toxic
averaging time or the times associated with the ERPG, IDLH or STEL measures of toxicity,
or to specify a User-defined time.
For this release, select the Toxic averaging time, which is set in the Toxic Parameters
and has a default value of 600 s.
The Location tab section allows you to select additional averaging times for which you
want concentration values. If you make any selections in the final section of the tab, the
results will appear in the Averaging Times report, as you saw in the previous chapter.
The Geometry Tab Section
Set the East co-ordinate to 198492 m, and the North co-ordinate to 435063 m.
The Bund Data Tab Section
If there is a bund around the vessel and you want to take this into account in the
modelling of pool-spreading and evaporation, you can check the Bund exists box and
enter a description of the bund. For this sphere there is no bund, so you can leave the
tab section with the default values.
25
The Indoor/Outdoor Tab Section

All of the fields in this tab section are disabled then the scenario is a catastrophic
rupture outdoors. Some of the fields are enabled for the longer-duration scenarios as
you will see later, while others are enabled for in-building releases.
Flammable Tab Section
The fields in this tab section are disabled when the material is toxic only. For a
flammable release, they allow you to choose between the three models for a vapour
cloud explosion, and to choose between two models for jet fires.
The Toxic Parameters Tab Section
The fields in this tab section are used in
modelling the build up of toxic concentration
inside a building, and the exposure of a person
inside the building.
By default, these calculations are set to
Unselected (i.e. they will not be performed), but
for this tutorial you should change them to
Selected. The calculations require information about the ventilation-rate for the building
and about how long people remain in the building after the cloud has passed and the
concentration is lower outdoors than indoors. By default these values will be taken
from the Toxic parameters tab section for the Model, but if you choose Wind Speed
Dependent for the Ventilation Specification, then the values will be taken from the data
for the Weather, which means that the values may be different for each weather.
For this tutorial, leave the Ventilation Specification with the default value of Case
Specified, and take the default values for the Building exchange rate and the Tail time.
The TNT, Multi Energy and Baker Strehlow Tab Sections
The fields in these tab section are disabled when the material is toxic only. They are
used in the modelling of a vapour cloud explosion.
The Discharge Parameters Tab Section
The fields in this tab section are always enabled, and take their default values from the
System Parameters. They are used in the discharge modelling for the Line Rupture,
Disc Rupture and Relief Valve scenarios, so are not relevant to this Model.
The Jet Fire, Pool Fire and Fireball Tab Sections
For a flammable release, these tab sections allow you to choose between options for
modelling each type of flame.
A Summary of the Input Data
The input process involves examining a large number of input fields, but the number
of values that you have to enter in order to complete the data for this Model is small, as
shown in the table below:
26
Tab Section Input Field Value

Material Discharge Material Chlorine
Inventory 102 m3
Process Conditions Saturated Liquid at 10oC.
Location Elevation 7.37 m
Concentration of 100 ppm
interest
Uses averaging time Toxic
Geometry East Co-ordinate 198492
North Co-ordinate 435063
Toxic Indoor Toxic Selected
parameters Calculations
The default scenario for a Vessel/Pipe Source Model is a catastrophic rupture out of
doors, so there is no need to change any settings in the Scenario tab section for this
particular Model.
If you have made all of these settings, the input data for the Model are now complete,
and you can click on OK to close the dialog. You should see that the icon no longer has
a red border, showing that it has a full set of input data.
Run the Calculations and View the Results
Select the Model and select Run Model from either the Run menu or the toolbar. When the
calculations are complete, view the graphs for all of the weathers.
You will see that there is no Pool Vaporisation tab in the Graph Window, which means
that the liquid in the release did not rain out; if you want more information about the
behaviour of the liquid droplets in the cloud, you should view either the Commentary
Report or the Dispersion Report.
The concentration graphs only ever show the outdoor concentration, but if you move
to the Toxic tab section you will see that the Probit, Lethality and Dose graphs display
separate results for indoor and outdoor effects, and that there are separate Footprint
graphs for outdoor and indoor effects. The Lethality graph shows that the greatest
downwind effect distance is for the F 1.5 m/s weather outdoors, with a distance of
about 2.5 km to a lethality level of 10%. The indoor effects for this weather reach about
2.25 km to 10% lethality. The shortest downwind effect distances are for D 5 m/s
indoors, which reaches about 1.4 km for a lethality level of 10%.
Defining the Second Release: Toxic Liquid from Pipework

The second release is from the same chlorine sphere, but the hazardous event is the
rupture of a one-inch liquid line attached to the bottom of the sphere, where the initial
liquid head will be 4.6 m. The line runs 4 m vertically downwards to 10 cm from the
ground, then 5 m horizontally to an isolation valve; the rupture is assumed to occur
just before the isolation valve.
Copy the First Model
Much of the input data for the vessel rupture is also applicable to the pipework failure,
so you can use copy and paste from the Edit menu or the right-click menu to create a
copy of the Rupture Model, also in the Toxic folder. Give the copy the name Cl2 Liquid
Pipework.
27
Setting the Input Data

Open the input dialog and set the input data as follows:
Material Tab Section
Leave this tab section with the same values as for the rupture, since the material and
process conditions are the same as for the rupture.
Scenario Tab Section
Set the Scenario Type to Line Rupture, and the Phase to be Released to Liquid.
The line rupture scenario models the full-bore rupture of pipework attached to a
vessel, and the discharge calculations take into account the effect of friction in the flow
from the vessel to the point of rupture. To model a release from the body of the vessel,
with no frictional losses in the discharge, you would choose the Leak scenario.
When the vessel contains saturated liquid, you will be offered a choice of release-phase
for the line rupture scenario: a vapour release from the top of the vessel, or a liquid
release from the bottom of the vessel. The list of phases includes two-phase, but this
is only enabled for the disc rupture and relief valve scenarios, for modelling over-
filling of the vessel.
Pipe Tab Section
The Pipe Length is the length of
pipework between the vessel and
the point of rupture, and you
should set it to 9 m as shown.
To set the Internal Diameter to one inch, click on
mm to the right of the field, and then select in
from the list of units that appears as shown. You can
then enter the diameter directly in inches, rather
than having to perform the conversion yourself into
the default unit of mm.
Leave the pipe roughness with the default value taken from the System Parameters.
The number of valves is used in the modelling of frictional losses, and you can leave
them as zero.
The other fields in the tab section are relevant only to the long pipeline scenario, and
are all disabled for the line rupture scenario.
Vessel Tab Section
For the line rupture scenario and most
of the other scenarios that involve a
continuous release, the Time Varying
Release option will be enabled in the
Vessel tab section.
If you do not check this option, then
the release will be modelled with the
initial release rate, and the duration
will be the time required to drain the
inventory at this initial rate. This will
normally give conservative results in
the consequence calculations.
If you select the time-varying option,
28
then you must supply information about the dimensions of the vessel. The discharge
calculations will model the effect of the release on conditions in the vessel and the way
that these conditions and the release rate change over time, and will represent these
time-varying results either with a single rate (e.g. an average rate, or a rate at a
particular time) or with a series of rates, depending on your selection for the Rates
versus time.
For this release, you will perform an initial run of the discharge calculations with the
time-varying modelling selected, then examine the results and decide on the most
appropriate way to represent the behaviour for the rest of the consequence analysis.
Set the Liquid Head to 4.6 m, select the Time Varying Release option, set the Tank
Type to Spherical, the Height of Discharge to zero, and the Diameter to 6.74 m. Leave
the Rates versus time set to the default selection of Average rate with an averaging
time of 3600 s; you can return to make a final selection after you have viewed the
discharge results.
Location Tab Section
Set the Elevation to 0.1 m. With this setting, the liquid droplets will probably not
evaporate inside the cloud, and will probably rain out and form a vaporising pool.
Leave the other fields with the same values as for the rupture. In reality, the release-
location would be offset by a few metres from the centre of the sphere but this
difference is insignificant compared with the effect distances for chlorine and can be
ignored
The Geometry Tab Section
Leave this unchanged.
Bund Data Tab Section
Leave this unchanged, with no bund specified.
Indoor/Outdoor Tab Section
For a continuous release scenario such as line rupture you must specify the Direction
of the release. Choose Horizontal from the list, which is the correct setting for this type of
unobstructed rupture of horizontal pipework.
The list of directions includes a second horizontal option: Horizontal Impingement. You
should select this option if the release is in a congested area and the release is likely to
impinge on a wall or other equipment; the program will reduce the momentum of the
release, which will reduce the amount of air mixed into the jet during the initial stages.
Discharge Parameters
There is one bend in the 9 m of pipework, so you can set the Frequency of Bends to
0.11 per m.
This completes the input data for this stage, and you can click on OK to close the input
dialog.
Running the Discharge Calculations
Select the Model and then select Run Discharge from the Run menu, the right-click menu
or the toolbar. This will run the discharge calculations alone, without peforming the
dispersion and effects calculations. The calculations may take several minutes,
depending on the speed of your machine.
When the results are complete, view the reports and move to the TV Discharge Report.
The rate drops by less than 3% in two hours of release, so the time-varying behaviour
29
can be ignored for this release. There are two options for bypassing the time-varying
discharge modelling in this situation:
1: Use the Averaged Discharge Results to Create a User-Defined Source Model
When you performed the discharge calculations, the program calculated the average
rate over the first 3600 s, and this is the representative rate given in the Discharge
Report. If you decide that you want to use this average rate rather than the initial rate,
you should select the Model, then select Create Source from the Edit menu or the right-
click menu.
The program will show a list of the weather conditions
for which you performed the discharge calculations and
for which it has results, and when you select one of
these weathers the program will create a User-Defined
Source Model with the name Calculated Discharge, as
shown.
The User-Defined Source Model has many of the same
tab sections as the Vessel/Pipe Model, but instead of the
Scenario and Vessel tab sections it has a Discharge tab
section in which you specify the discharge rate and
conditions directly, since the User-Defined Source Model does not perform any
discharge modelling itself. The Calculated Discharge Model will be created with Discharge
data taken from the averaged results from the Liquid Pipework Model, but you can edit
these values if you choose.
2: Edit the Model and Deselect Time-Varying Release
This is the simplest method for bypassing the time-varying discharge modelling if you
decide that you want to use the initial rate to represent the entire release, and this is the
method that will be used for this tutorial. The discharge calculations for this Model will
run much more quickly with the time-varying option turned off.
After this adjustment, the final set of input data for this Model can be summarised as
follows, not including the values that are the same as those for the rupture model:
Scenario Scenario Type Line Rupture
Phase Released Liquid
Pipe Pipe Length 9m
Internal Diameter 1 inch
Vessel Time-Varying Release? Not selected
Tank Head 4.6 m
Indoor/Outdoor Direction Horizontal
Discharge Parameters Frequency of Bends 0.11 per m
The default direction for a line rupture scenario is Horizontal, so there is no need to
change any settings in the Indoor/Outdoor tab section for this particular Model.
30
Run the Consequence Calculations and View the Results

Select the Model and select Run Model from either the Run menu or the toolbar. When the
calculations are complete, view the graphs for all of the weathers.
You will see that there is a Pool Vaporisation tab in the Graph Window, which means
that the liquid in the release did rain out. If you view the reports and look at the
Commentary Report, you will see that rainout fraction is only about 0.019 for the 1.5/D
weather, 0.028 for the 1.5/F weather and 0.011 for the 5/D weather, so the formation
and behaviour of the pool will have little effect on the dispersion or toxic effects.
In the Toxic Lethality graph, the greatest effect distances are for the F 1.5 m/s weather
outdoors, with a distance of 900 m to a lethality level of 10%, which is approximately a
third of the distance reached by the catastrophic rupture. The least stable night-time
condition, D 5 m/s, reaches only 350 m for 10% lethality outdoors.
Defining the Third Model: Toxic Vapour from Pipework

The vapour release is the rupture of a two-inch pipe attached to the top of the sphere.
The line runs 3.4 m horizontally, then vertically downwards, and the rupture is
assumed to occur 1 m from the ground.
Create the Model as a copy of the Liquid Pipework Model, rename the copy to Cl2 Vapor
Pipework, and change the input data as follows:
Scenario Phase Released Vapour
Pipe Pipe Length 13 m
Internal Diameter 2 inch
Location Elevation 1m
Indoor/Outdoor Direction Down Impinging on
the Ground
Discharge Parameters Frequency of Bends 0.08 per m
When the phase is set to Vapour in the Scenario tab section, the Building Wake Effect
fields will become enabled. The sphere is in an open area so building-wake effects are
not relevant to this release, and you can leave these options unchecked.
The release rate from the two-inch vapour line is similar to that from the one-inch
liquid line, and the two pipework releases give very similar effect distances.
Defining Three Flammable Releases

There is a propane sphere at the far north of the site. The propane sphere has the same
dimensions as the chlorine sphere and the same design of pipework, and is also
operating under saturation conditions at atmospheric temperature.
Setting the Input Data for the Models
You can define the rupture and the two pipework failures by copying the three toxic
Models and simply changing the selection of discharge material and the eastern co-
ordinates.
Copying the Models
Select the Toxic folder, copy and paste it, and name the copy Flammable. In the name for
each Model, change Cl2 to C3.
31
Changing the Material Selection

Open the input dialog, click on the button with three dots to the right of the Discharge
Material field, and change the selection from CHLORINE to PROPANE. The list of
materials is arranged alphabetically, and you can move quickly to PROPANE by clicking
in the list and then typing P, which will take you to the first material with this initial
letter.
When you return to the Materials tab section you will see that the program has
recalculated the saturation pressure at 10oC and also the mass for the inventory.
You must make this change for each of the three Models.
Changing the Concentration of Interest
When you move to the Location tab section, you will see that the Toxic averaging time is
no longer set for Uses averaging time and that this field is now shown as unset and
mandatory. The material is flammable only so the Toxic averaging time is not included
in the list, and the program is prompting you to make a different selection for the
calculations of the stopping-concentration.
For a flammable release you would not
want to calculate the concentration to a
value as low as 100 ppm, since the cloud
will not pose a hazard once it has diluted
below the lower flammable limit of 2% or
20,000 ppm. You could set this
concentration yourself, but for a
flammable release you can also leave the
Concentration of interest blank, as
shown, and the program will
automatically stop the dispersion calculations once the concentration has reached a
given fraction of the LFL as calculated with the Flammable averaging time. By default
the fraction is 50%, but you can change this in the Flammable Parameters if you prefer.
Changing the coordinates
At the Geometry tab, set the new location to: East co-
ordinate to 197327 m, and the North co-ordinate to
435681 m.
Setting the Input Data for the Fire Modelling
If you move to the Jet Fire, Pool Fire or Fireball tab sections, you will see that three
levels of radiation intensity are specified, but that the calculations for radiation dose,
probit and lethality are all unselected. These calculations are not selected by default
because they can be time-consuming, so you would normally only select them if you
know that you need them for a particular analysis or a particular Model.
For this tutorial you will set the lethality calculations to Selected and specify five levels
of lethality but you will do this in the Parameters instead of in the Model data, since
this is the most efficient method if you want to set values that will be used by all
Models.
32
Move to the Parameters tab in the Study

Tree, open the input dialog for the Jet
Fire Parameters, and set the Radiation
Lethality data as shown. After you have
clicked on OK to close the dialog you will
see that the Jet Fire Parameters icon no
longer has a green border, which shows
that not it is not using the values set in
the System Parameters for all of the
fields.
Next, open the input dialog for the Pool
Fire Parameters, and set the same values for Radiation Lethality.
Finally, open the input dialog for the Fireball and BLEVE Blast Parameters, and set the
same values.
If you move to the Models tab of the Study Tree and look at the Jet Fire, Pool Fire or
Fireball tab sections for any of the flammable Models, you will see that the lethality
calculations are now selected, with the five levels set.
Running the Consequence Calculations and viewing the Results
Select the Flammable folder and use the Run Models option to run the calculations for all
three Models.
You can also view the results for all three
Models at once. Select the Flammable folder
and then select View Graphs. A Plot Setup
dialog will appear, prompting you for the
Weather for which you want to view
results. When you are viewing results for
multiple Models you can only choose a
single Weather, so the Weathers have radio buttons. On the other hand, when viewing
graphs for a single Model check boxes will be available. Select the 1.5/F Weather,
which should give the greatest effect distances for dispersion.
The Graph Window contains tab sections for Concentration graphs, as with the toxic
Models, but it contains Jet Fire, Fireball and Flash Fire tab sections instead of the Toxic
tab section. The propane releases do not produce any liquid rainout, so there are no
Pool Fire tab sections.
The main features of the graphs are described below.
Jet Fire Graphs
The Jet Fire tab section contains three graphs, which are presenting results for the two
pipework failures. The first graph shows radiation level versus distance, the second
shows Intensity Radii to the lowest of the three radiation levels set in the Parameters (4
kW/m2), and the third graph shows Lethality Radii to a lethality level of 1%, which is
the lowest of the five lethality levels that you set in the parameters. The maximum
downwind effect distance shown in these graphs is around 33 m, which is the distance
for 4 kW/m2 for the liquid release.
If a given Fire Radii graph is showing results for more than one Model or more than
one Weather, then it will only plot a single level, which will be the lowest level set for
that type of result (e.g. the lowest intensity level, or the lowest lethality level). If you
want to see results for all of the levels, then you must view the graphs for a single
Model and Weather.
33
Fireball Graphs
The Bleve (or Fireball) tab section also contains three graphs. These are showing results
only for the rupture, and this means that the two Radii graphs are able to show the
results for more than one level. The maximum downwind effect distance is about 560
m, to a radiation level of 4 kW/m2, and the distance to a.lethality level of 1% is about
290 m. There is no ellipse for a lethality level of 100%, because the fireball does not
produce the necessary radiation dose at the height of interest (set to ground level in the
Flammable Parameters).
Explosion Graphs
The two Early Explosion graphs contain results only for the Rupture, since immediate
explosions are assumed not to occur for continuous releases. However, the Late
Explosion graphs contain results for all three Models.
The Late Explosion Worst Case graph shows the effect radii for the explosion-time
which gives the greatest downwind distance for the lowest overpressure set in the
Explosion Parameters (0.02 bar), and the legend for the Late Explosion Time graph
gives the time at which the worst-case explosion occurs. The greatest downwind effect
distance is 1,400 m, for the Rupture, and it occurs at 7.4 s.
Flash Fire Graph
The Flash Fire Graph shows the zone for the cloud at the time that it covers the
maximum area. For the rupture, this gives a maximum downwind effect distance of
350 m to 10,000 ppm, whereas for the two pipework releases this gives a distance of
about 70 m to the same concentration. 10,000 ppm is 50% of the LFL, which is the
fraction set by default in the Flammable Parameters as the boundary of the flash fire
effect zone.
Alternative Methods for Modelling Early Explosions
When you were setting the input data for the flammable Models you left the
Flammable tab section with the default settings, which means that the early explosion
for Rupture was modelled with the default method, which is the TNT method.
In this section you will create versions of the Rupture Model that use the other methods
for modelling early explosions, and compare the results.
Creating the Model Icons
Insert a folder inside the Flammable folder, and name it Rupture.
Drag the Rupture Model inside this folder and then create two copies of the Model.
Rename the original Model TNT, name the first copy Multi-Energy, and the second copy
Baker-Strehlow.
Setting the Inputs for the TNT Explosion Method
For the TNT Model, move to the TNT tab section to check the input data for the
modelling.
You can leave the Explosion Efficiency with the default
value, but for this Model you should set the location to
Ground burst, which means that you are assuming that the
explosion is sufficiently close to the ground that there will be reflection effects in the
pressure waves.
Click on OK to close the dialog for the TNT Model.
34
Setting the Inputs for the Multi-Energy Explosion Method

Open the input dialog for the Multi-Energy Model, move to the Flammable tab section,
and choose TNO Multi-Energy as the Explosion Method.
Next, move to the Multi Energy tab section, where you can define up to seven regions
of confinement within the cloud and also specify the strength of an explosion in the
unconfined regions of the cloud.
By default there are no confined regions selected, which means that there are no
mandatory fields in the tab section and that the Model will run even if you do not set
any values in the tab section but it also means that by default the Model will not
produce any explosion results.
For this tutorial you will define three
regions of confinement, each occupying
30% of the volume of the cloud, and with
a range of confinement strengths between
6 and 8, as shown. Values of 8 and 9 are
typically used for process units, but the
region around the propane sphere is
relatively open.
The strength of an explosion in the
unconfined region of the cloud will be 2,
as shown.
Click on OK to close the dialog for the Multi-Energy Model.
Setting the Inputs for the Baker-Strehlow Explosion Method
Open the input dialog for the Baker Strehlow Model, move to the Flammable tab section,
and choose Baker Strehlow as the Explosion Method.
Next, move to the Baker-Stehlow tab section. This tab section contains many
mandatory fields, and you must complete this tab section before you can run the
Model.
For this tutorial, use the option to have the
program calculate the speed of the flame (rather
than supplying it yourself). For a propane release
you should set the Material Reactivity to Medium,
and for this release you should set the number of
dimensions for the Flame Expansion to 2, and the
Obstacle Density to Medium, as shown.
The release is relatively close to the ground and
there is likely to be some reflection of the
pressure-waves off the ground, so you should set
the Ground Reflection Factor to 1.6. Finally, the volume of the cloud assumed to be
involved in the explosion is 500 m3.
Click on OK to close the dialog for the Baker-Strehlow Model.
35

Select the Rupture folder, run the calculations, and then view the graphs for the 1.5/F
Weather.
In the Early Explosion Distance graph, the Baker-Strehlow Model has the highest peak
overpressure, of about 1.02 barg, but the pressure declines rapidly with distance and
there are no effects beyond about 300 m. The TNT Model produces a peak pressure of 1
barg and the pressure declines less rapidly with distance, so the pressure at 300 m is 0.2
barg, and there are effects out to 1,400 m. For the Multi-Energy Model, the graph shows
results only for the unconfined region of the cloud, for which the peak overpressure is
only about 0.02 barg.
However, in the Early Explosion Radii graph the results shown for the Multi-Energy
Model are those for the worst case, and in this comparison the Multi-Energy Model gives
the greatest effect distances of the three Models, with a distance of about 2 km to 0.02
barg.
If you view the graphs for the Multi-Energy Model on its own and select only the 1.5/F
Weather, you will be able to see separate Early Explosion Distance results for each of
the regions in the cloud. These results show that the over-pressure levels close to the
release are very strongly dependent on the value that you set for the strength of
confinement.
This analysis shows that, for this release, the default TNT method gives results that are
close to the multi-energy results with a medium strength of confinement (i.e. with a
strength of 7). It seems reasonable and simplest - to take the default method as
representative for this analysis.
Flammable Releases from a Rail Tank Wagon

The propane is delivered to the facility by tank wagon from a marshalling yard 10 km
to the north. The deliveries take place once a week, involving two tank wagons, and
are always during the day and never at night. The wagons are 10.6 m in length, 2.6 m
in diameter with a volume of 54 m3, are raised 0.5 m above the ground, and are
delivered with a fill-level of 80%. The propane is under the same conditions as in the
sphere: under saturation conditions at atmospheric temperature (taken as 10oC).
There are many hazardous events that could be modelled for the tank wagons,
including leaks during the unloading process. This tutorial will consider only the
rupture of a wagon under normal operating conditions, a leak from the liquid side of a
wagon, and a fireball produced by catastrophic rupture of a wagon under flame
impingement. All events are assumed to occur while the wagons are at the unloading
point 100 m south of the propane sphere.
Defining the Rupture of the Wagon
First, create a folder and name it Tank Wagon, and then copy the TNT Model from the
Rupture folder, which you will use as the starting point for defining the release. Name
the Model Wagon Rupture.
Open the input dialog and set the data as follows:
Material Inventory 43.2 m3
Geometry North co-ordinate 435581 m
36
Defining the Leak from the Liquid Side of a Wagon

Copy the Rupture Model and name the copy Wagon Liquid Leak, and then open the input
dialog and set the data as follows:
Scenario Scenario Type Leak
Hole Diameter 1 inch
Vessel Tank Head 1.95 m
Indoor/Outdoor Direction Down Impinging on the Ground
For a release from the body of a vessel rather than from attached pipework, you should
set the Scenario Type to Leak. This will give a larger discharge rate since there are no
frictional losses during the flow to the leak-location. For the leak scenario, you specify
the leak-size in the Scenario tab section.
The leak is assumed to be at the bottom of the tank, which is the most conservative
assumption for the tank head and the duration.
Defining the Fireball Failure under Flame Impingement
The program allows you to model immediate-ignition effects from fireballs and
poolfires on their own, separated from any modelling of dispersion and delayed-
ignition effects, and you do this by using the Fireball Model or Poolfire Model rather
than the Source Models.
Select the Tank Wagon folder, then select the option to insert a Fireball Model and click
somewhere next to the Tank Wagon on the map (the location will be corrected
following the data in the table). Name the Model Wagon Fireball, then open the input
dialog and set the data as follows:
Material Material PROPANE
Burst Pressure 8.57 barg
Fireball Shape Released Mass 22.2e3 kg
Mass Vapour Fraction 0.25
Radiation Data Radiation vs Distance Selected
Maximum Distance 500 m
Angle from Wind 0 degrees
Height above Origin 0m
Radiation Ellipse Selected
Incident Radiation 4 kW/m2
Geometry East Location 197327 m
North Location 435581 m
The Burst Pressure is 60% greater than the normal operating pressure and is used in
calculating the surface emissive power of the fireball.
The Fireball Shape tab section gives you the choice between using a correlation to
obtain the radius, duration and emissive power, or entering your own values. For this
Model, you are using the correlation.
The dialog also contains a Contour Data tab section that allows you to define a plane
and up to three radiation levels for which you want contour results.
37

Run the calculations for the Tank Wagon folder and then view the graphs for the 1.5/F
Weather, and then examine the Bleve or fireball results.
The Fireball Model gives slightly larger effect distances than the Rupture Model, with a
distance of about 460 m to 4 kW/m2 compared with 440 m. This shows the effect of the
higher vessel pressure used in the Fireball Model to model failure under flame
impingement, whereas the Rupture Model considers a rupture under normal operating
conditions which then has a probability of igniting immediately and giving fireball
effects.
Saving the Study Folder with the Results
You have now completed the tutorial, and you should save the Study Folder in order
to save the changes you have made.
By default, the program will only save the input data, which means that the next time
you open the Study Folder, you will have to rerun the calculations in order to view the
full results. However, if you select the Save As option from the File menu, the Save As
dialog will contain an option to Save results as well as your input data. If you select
this option, the program will save the full set of consequence results and you will be
able to view the results immediately the next time you open the Study Folder
although you should be aware that the file may be large, e.g. 25 MB or more.
38
Getting Help on Results

Getting help on Results aims to give the user directions on where to find
information, description, etc of graphs and reports. As already mentioned in the
Getting Help on the input data, under the Help menu, Contents and Index window will
appear and you will be able to see a list of topics under the Contents tab.
The Help Window Contents tab
Red boxes on the side image shows items

which are worth reading. Explanation on
how to work with graphs and maps
(changing scale and graph properties,
viewing dynamic plotting of clouds,), as
well as a description of their results can be
found here. Regarding the reports, Help
menu also teaches you many ways to view
them, how to export them into another
program, such as excel, word If you are
interested to know more about detailed
contents of reports for models, please click
on Report: for details of results. You will
observe that help on results for
consequence is covered within the topics.
Consequence reports are the most used for
clear reasons; however, material,
parameter and weather report can also be
created.
You may also want to use the two other
search tabs (Index and Search tab) to find a
particular information.
39
What Next?
This tutorial has not covered every feature of the program, but you should now have
enough of an understanding of the approach and methods used in the program to be
able to explore the remaining features yourself, with the assistance of the online Help.
If you need further details on any aspect of the program, or if you need guidance on
how to model a particular situation for your facility, you should contact product
support using the details given under Product Support in the Help menu.
40

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Phast

Copyright Det Norske Veritas. All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 1 An Introduction to Phast 1

Chapter 2 Setting up your own Analysis 18

Chapter 3 Performing the Consequence Analysis 23

What to Expect of this Tutorial

Starting the Program Running

The Main Window

The Main Window on Startup

Opening the Phast Example Study Folder

The Main Window with a Study Folder Open

The Study Tree Pane

The Weather Tab Section

The Materials Tab Section

The Map Tab Section

The Map tab section and the Map Window

Pinpointing an Individual Model

Viewing Input Data

Input Dialog for the Chlorine Rupture Model

Getting Help on the Input Data

The Help Window

Running the Calculations and Viewing the Results

The Graph Window

The Footprint concentration results are the

If you view the Lethality

Viewing the Reports for the Butadiene Rupture Model

The Report Window

The Discharge Report

The Early Explosion Report

Results for Two Time-Steps in the Late Explosion Report

The Flowrate graph appears

The Form of the Analysis

Creating a new Study Folder

The Contents of a new Study Folder

Setting up the Map Data

Selecting a Co-ordinate System for the Map

The Location of the Facility on the Map

Defining the First Model: for a Toxic Rupture

The vessel is out of doors, so you can leave the

The Indoor/Outdoor Tab Section

Tab Section Input Field Value

Defining the Second Release: Toxic Liquid from Pipework

Setting the Input Data

Run the Consequence Calculations and View the Results

Defining the Third Model: Toxic Vapour from Pipework

Defining Three Flammable Releases

Changing the Material Selection

Move to the Parameters tab in the Study

Setting the Inputs for the Multi-Energy Explosion Method

Running the Calculations and Viewing the Results

Flammable Releases from a Rail Tank Wagon

Defining the Leak from the Liquid Side of a Wagon

Running the Calculations and Viewing the Results

Getting Help on Results

The Help Window Contents tab

Red boxes on the side image shows items

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