A Novel Simulation-Based Fire Risk Hazard Ranking for Refrigerant Leakage in Confined Spaces

In this paper, we present a new risk metric to measure the probability of fire when there is leakage of a combustible refrigerant gas into a confined space. This risk metric can only be obtained via computational fluid dynamics modeling (CFD) software such as OpenFOAM. In essence, we track the volume of combustible gas that lies between the upper and lower flammability limits. We demonstrate how the risk metric can change depend upon a change in the details of the leakage scenario.