Steam curtains design

Four design criteria will help to optimize the effectiveness of a steam curtain. 

First, a steam curtain should be designed to activate rapidly. As discussed in Chapter 2, a gas cloud develops very quickly after an accidental release, requiring immediate mitigation. With a steam curtain, this can be accomplished by connecting the hydrocarbon or gas detectors to the steam curtain controls and having them activate the system automatically. There should always be a backup system to activate the curtain manually. 

Third, a steam curtain should be designed to allow quick activation of steam flow to the curtain s piping system. This means that the steam lines from the headers to the steam curtain sections must be well trapped to ensure that when the valves open, hot dry steam is supplied to the header. A delay while the condensate is drained from the system, or the unstable operation of the curtain that could result, is not desirable. Also, having an adequate supply of steam available for the time required to bring other mitigation techniques into play to secure the situation is essential. 

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