When natural gas leaks from a subsurface pipeline, a ground cover of water/snow saturation, asphalt paving or a combination of these can cause the gas to migrate away from the leak site up to three to four times farther than through dry soil, a new study has found.
When natural gas leaks from a subsurface pipeline, a ground cover of water/snow saturation, asphalt paving or a combination of these can cause the gas to migrate away from the leak site up to three to four times farther than through dry soil, a new study has found.
An SMU-led research team also found that these surface conditions can impact the speed of the leaked gas, as well, traveling 3.5 times faster than an equivalent leak under dry soil conditions.
“This work is highly significant, as for the first time, it links the impact of changes in surface conditions to belowground gas transport times and distances,” said SMU’s Kathleen M. Smits, one of the co-authors of the study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters. It’s critical for first responders and gas and oil companies to factor in soil surface structures when evaluating the safety risk of a pipeline leak to nearby homes and businesses, said Smits, SMU Lyle School of Engineering Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Solomon Professor for Global Development.
Read more at Southern Methodist University
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