Early smoke plume and cloud formation by large-area fires. Technical report, 15 November 1984-29 May 1987
It is likely that a nuclear burst over an urban area would cause a large number of fires burning simultaneously over hundreds of square kilometers. The atmospheric heating produced by these fires would result in low-level convergence over a broad region and a highly buoyant upward mass flux over the fire, lofting large quantities of smoke and moisture to high altitudes. This report presents the results of highly resolved numerical calculations describing the early-time cloud and smoke-plume formation by large city fires. The simulations show that atmospheric moisture contributes significantly to plume evolution through latent heat release. The model indicates that early scavenging of smoke particles by precipitation is likely to reduce the amount of smoke injected into the upper atmosphere. A principal result is that plume rise is controlled primarily by fire intensity and atmospheric stratification rather than fire size.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific-Sierra Research Corp., Los Angeles, CA (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 6946762
- Report Number(s):
- AD-A-192056/0/XAB; PSR-1728
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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450202* -- Explosions & Explosives-- Nuclear-- Weaponry-- (-1989)
AEROSOLS
CLOUDS
COLLOIDS
CONVERGENCE
DISPERSIONS
DOCUMENT TYPES
EXPLOSIONS
FIRES
HEATING
MATHEMATICS
MOISTURE
NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS
NUMERICAL ANALYSIS
PARTICLES
PLUMES
PRECIPITATION
PROGRESS REPORT
RESIDUES
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SMOKES
SOLS
URBAN AREAS