A CONCEPTUAL MODEL FOR CHARACTERIZING HUMAN AND ASSET RISK FROM UNCONTROLLED GAS RELEASES

The unintentional release of pressurized gases poses a significant safety concern in industrial environments, with the potential to harm personnel, damage equipment, and disrupt operations. This work outlines a general modelling approach used to evaluate and display the potential consequences of such events. The focus is on how the physical release behaviour, thermal effects, and atmospheric transport can be combined to estimate hazard zones. The framework draws on mathematical and engineering principles to approximate release intensity, the potential for heat exposure following ignition, and the movement of gas in the surrounding environment under varying meteorological conditions. These outputs support the definition of indicative ranges associated with different levels of human harm and asset impact, enabling the visualisation of spatial envelopes of concern. Although simplified relative to high-fidelity computational simulations, the approach is designed to provide timely insight into likely consequence footprints, supporting scenario comparisons, emergency planning, and preliminary risk assessment activities. Its flexibility allows for adaptation to different gas compositions, site layouts, and operating contexts, making it suitable for use across a range of industrial applications. More broadly, the work demonstrates how integrating physical release theory with atmospheric dispersion concepts can offer a practical way to understand potential impacts and guide protection or mitigation decisions.

Keywords: Consequence modelling, Thermal radiation, Jet fire, Hazard zoning..