*Copied from The Shorthorn – click here to go to original article*
Two governmental agencies awarded Kathleen Smits, civil engineering associate professor, grants to further her research studying detection and mitigation methods for large gas leak scenarios.
Smits received the grant awards in August from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration and the Colorado Department of Natural Resources. The award sums were $365,000 and about $260,000, respectively. The aim is to prevent potentially life-threatening situations and help industry professionals and first responders better detect, trace and mitigate gas leaks when they occur.
The research focuses on understanding how natural gas migrates when it is leaked underground.
“What we’re interested in, with both of the grants, is understanding gas, when it leaks, how it moves underneath the ground and builds up and produces explosive concentrations within substructures,” Smits said.
Methane, which comprises the largest portion of natural gas, is a potent compound with long-lasting environmental impacts and is very explosive.
Methane’s lifetime in the atmosphere is much shorter than carbon dioxide (CO2), but CH4 is more efficient at trapping radiation than CO2. Pound for pound, the comparative impact of CH4 is 25 times greater than CO2 over a 100-year period, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Natural gas distribution is a significant source of these emissions, and Smits’ research is critical in accomplishing the goal of reducing emissions, civil engineering professor Melanie Sattler said.
Detecting gas leaks is a difficult task as pipelines are buried 3 to 6 feet underground, often running alongside other residential pipelines.
Sensors measure the concentration of methane in the surrounding area in order to locate if there is a leak and estimate its rate.
Environmental factors, such as soil condition and weather, affect how methane behaves when it is leaked from the subsurface, and this can interfere with the accuracy of the detectors, said Shanru Tian, civil engineering graduate student.
Mathematical modeling and experimentation allows scientists to account for the factors that affect the accuracy of detector designs and make them more accurate, Smits said.
Alongside mathematical modeling, the use of experiments is critical in increasing the accuracy of gas leak detection methods, she said.
Michelle Schwartz, civil engineering graduate student, said the testbeds she is helping design serve to simulate various real-life gas leak scenarios one would encounter at a site.
“I am designing a testbed facility that is going to simulate scenarios similar to what first responders and industry partners see if they get called to address the leaks,” Schwartz said.
Maintaining the close tie between performing physical experiments informed by mathematical modeling has been important, Smits said.
“Having that linkage between physical experiments and then mathematical experiments, through modeling, is critical to the work,” she said.
@Thevninr