Further assessment of FEM3: a numerical model for the dispersion of heavy gases over complex terrain

Conference · Tue Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1985

OSTI ID:6336424

Chan, S T; Ermak, D L

FEM3 is a three-dimensional numerical model for simulating the atmospheric dispersion of heavy gases over complex terrain. During the past few years, FEM3 has been assessed, using data from the Burro and Coyote series of LNG spill experiments conducted by LLNL at China Lake, California. In general, the model has been found to perform very well and it greatly complements the field experiments in enhancing our understanding of the phenomena associated with LNG vapor dispersion, including gravity spreading, heating from the ground surface, and terrain effects. In this paper, the FEM3 model is further applied to simulate the dispersion of nitrogen dioxide (NO/sub 2/) for one of the LLNL conducted nitrogen tetroxide (N/sub 2/O/sub 4/) spill tests and also to simulate the dispersion of propane gas for four of the refrigerated liquid propane spills conducted by SHELL Research Limited at Maplin Sands. The main purpose of the NO/sub 2/ simulation is to demonstrate the heavy gas effects in this test and the latter simulations are for assessing the performance of the current model for simulating the dispersion of propane gas. 12 refs., 12 figs.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 6336424
• Report Number(s): UCRL-92497; CONF-8511110-3; ON: DE86001905
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

500200* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ALKANES
CHALCOGENIDES
CHEMICAL SPILLS
COMPLEX TERRAIN
COMPUTER CODES
DATA
DIFFUSION
ENERGY SOURCES
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
F CODES
FLUIDS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUEL GAS
FUELS
GAS FUELS
GASES
HYDROCARBONS
INFORMATION
LIQUEFIED GASES
LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NATURAL GAS
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
NITROGEN DIOXIDE
NITROGEN OXIDES
NUMERICAL DATA
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PROPANE