Critical Confrontation of Standard and More Sophisticated Methods for Modelling the Dispersion in Air of Heavy Gas Clouds; Evaluation and Illustration of the Intrinsic Limitations of Both Categories.

摘要

Mathematical models of gas dispersion have evolved drastically since the 1930's. For a long time, the most widely used approach was the so-called Gaussian model as described in practical terms by Turner or box models which have shown relative merits. In the field of heavy gas dispersion, the use of such approaches appeared somewhat limited and therefore new models have been proposed. Some of these new generation models were making use of the latest progress in turbulence modelling as derived from laboratory work as well as numerical advances. The advent of faster and larger computers made possible the development of three dimensional codes that were computing both flow field and gas dispersion taking into account details of the ground obstacles, heat exchange and possibly phase changes as well. The description of these new types of models makes them appear as a considerable improvement over the simpler approaches. However, recent comparisons between many of these have led to the conclusion that the scatter between predictions attained with sophisticated models was just as large as with other ones. It seems therefore, that current researchers might have fallen into the trap of confusing mathematical precision with accuracy. It is therefore felt necessary to enlighten this question by an investigation which, rather than comparing individual models, would analyse the key features of both approaches and put in evidence their relative merits and degree of realism when being really applied. (Atomindex citation 15:001580)