Publications

Benchmark Comparison of HyRAM and ALDEA Software for Hydrogen Release Behavior

Glover, Austin M.; Ehrhart, Brian D.; Muna, Alice B.; Hecht, Ethan S.; Bernard, Laurence B.; Houssin, Deborah H.; Jallais, Simon J.; Vyazmina, Elena V.

There are several different calculation approaches and tools that can be used to evaluate the risk of hydrogen energy applications. A comparative study of Air Liquide’s ALDEA (Air Liquide Dispersion and Explosion Assessment) tools suite and Sandia’s HyRAM (Hydrogen Risk Assessment Models) toolkit has been conducted. The purpose of this study was to understand and evaluate the differences between the two calculation approaches, and identify areas for model improvements. There were several scenarios examined in this effort regarding hydrogen release dynamics. These scenarios include free jet release cases at varying pressures, vessel blowdown, and hydrogen build-up scenarios with and without ventilation. For each scenario, the input and output of the HyRAM calculations are documented, along with a comparison to the ALDEA results. Generally, the results from the two different tools were reasonably aligned. However, there were fundamental differences in evaluation methodology and functional limitations in HyRAM that caused discrepancies in some calculations.