An atmospheric dispersion primer: Accidental releases of gases, vapors, liquids, and aerosols to the environment
- Shell Oil Co., Houston, TX (United States)
- Rohm and Haas, Bristol, PA (United States)
- Chevron Corp., Richmond, CA (United States)
Dispersion from accidental releases encompasses many different aspects. It includes the methods of classical air pollution modeling used in estimating the dispersion of dilute air pollutants, but also encompasses the more complex physics of dense-vapor and high-momentum releases, boiling and evaporating liquids, multiphase flow, vessel blowdown, and aerosol transport. The purpose of this paper is to present a basic description of accidental release problems in the context of a technical narrative. The topics addressed in this primer include a basic introduction in Section 1 and a discussion of turbulence and meteorology in Section 2. In Section 3 the problem of release rate estimates is covered. Following this, in Section 4, the problem of liquid pool evaporation is covered. Momentum or buoyancy dominates jet releases are covered in Section 5, and the problem of low-momentum heavy-gas releases is covered in Section 6. In Section 7, the problem of passive dispersion, where ambient turbulence dominates the dilution process, is discussed. Section 8 includes discussion of a number of special complications which can arise in a dispersion analysis. Section 9 is a discussion of toxic vapor hazard levels. Section 10 directs the reader to a number of summary references which cover the availability and use of computer models for accidental release air dispersion modeling.
- OSTI ID:
- 287552
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-950927-; ISBN 0-8169-0660-2; TRN: IM9639%%141
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: International conference and workshop on modeling and mitigating the consequences of accidental releases of hazardous materials, New Orleans, LA (United States), 26-29 Sep 1995; Other Information: PBD: 1995; Related Information: Is Part Of International conference and workshop on modeling and mitigating the consequences of accidental releases of hazardous materials; PB: 1044 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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