Pipeline transportation has become the main mode of natural
gas
transportation. Due to inevitable aging, corrosion, and third-party
damage, natural gas pipeline leakage accidents occur frequently. Leakage
in the tunnel will lead to the leakage and accumulation of natural
gas, and the potential explosion risk will threaten the tunnel’s
safety. It is significant to elaborate on the diffusion behavior of
leaked natural gas in tunnel space for the traceability of leakage
points and the formulation of safety technical measures. In this paper,
a scale-down experimental platform for natural gas pipeline leakage
in the tunnel is built, and the influence of pipeline pressure on
natural gas diffusion characteristics is described. The results show
that the diffusion process of leaked natural gas in the tunnel space
shows obvious segmentation characteristics, and the concentration
of natural gas reaches the maximum at the end of the continuous leakage
stage. The increased pipeline pressure promotes natural gas diffusion,
and the concentration of natural gas under 1.0 and 1.2 MPa rises sharply.
First dangerous time (FDT) and maximum accumulated concentration (MAC)
have a negative correlation with the leakage distance, while FDT and
MAC have a good exponential and linear relationship with the pipeline
pressure (0.2–1.2 MPa), respectively.