Consequence-Based Assessment of Hydrogen Jet-Fire Hazards in a Port Hydrogen Refueling Station: Theory–CFD Coupling and Wind-Affected Thermal Impact Zoning

Port-area hydrogen refueling stations face low-frequency but high-consequence events when high-pressure leaks ignite as jet fires in wind-exposed, constrained environments. This study develops a consequence-based framework coupling theoretical screening, CFD combustion analysis, and hazard zoning to support separation-distance setting and emergency planning. A jet-fire model estimates flame-impingement distances for multiple leak diameters, and a weighted multi-point radiation model predicts heat-flux fields, from which lethal and irreversible-injury zones are delineated using thresholds of 7 and 5 kW/m2, respectively. To move beyond wind-free screening, steady reacting-flow CFD is conducted for a representative release under four ambient conditions, with 4.34 m/s adopted as the representative wind speed for the windy cases based on Ningbo Port conditions. Validation against a visible-flame correlation defined by T ≥ 1573 K shows a deviation of 6.99%. Results show that radiation footprints expand markedly with diameter, with lethal and injury distances scaling approximately linearly within the studied range. Under wind, near-ground hot-plume extents defined by T ≥ 388 K and T ≥ 582 K depend strongly on wind direction and station geometry, whereas visible flame length is less sensitive. Additional sensitivity analyses indicate that the quasi-steady results are weakly affected by the selected ignition snapshot, while inclined releases modify projected plume/flame extents without altering the main engineering interpretation of the baseline case. The results support theory-based preliminary screening, but wind direction should be explicitly considered in exclusion-zone definition.