The production of oil and gas is an inherently hazardous task. Therefore it is crucial to provide reliable estimates of the risks involved. The major contributors to the risk level of an offshore installation, for example, arise from accidents involving explosion and fire. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) can be a powerful tool to help with the calculation of accidental explosion scenarios. In this context, the present work suggests a novel implementation of a model based on a modified Porosity Distributed Resistance (MPDR) approach within an unstructured 3D Navier-Stokes solver. The model operates by representing parts of the filtered geometry from the original model through porosity values attributed to an unstructured tetrahedral mesh. Extra resistance terms are added in the momentum equation as well as extra sources of turbulence. Two extra sources of turbulence are modelled. The first of these is due to the shear layers of the non-resolved obstacles, whilst the second is due to the presence of wakes behind the non-resolved obstacles. Results for 2D and 3D test cases are compared against both experimental data and simulations with fully-resolved geometry and good agreement is observed. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.