Defining Room Area for Connected Spaces for Flammable Refrigerants (LB-17-C023)

Flammability risk, in the event of a leak, can be lowered by reducing the potential for forming a refrigerant/air mixture that can reach the lower flammability limit (LFL) in the event of a leak into a confined space. The determination of effective room area and space volume has become critical to safety. This paper will describe an approach for determination effective room area, including methods to utilize adjacent connected spaces. Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) analysis was performed to support the justification for the methodology. An approach, utilizing the principles of natural convection and forced convection will be described for determining the effective room area and volume for individual rooms and connected rooms for unventilated spaces.