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Accidental Releases of Heavy Gases in Urban Areas

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Wind Climate in Cities

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((NSSE,volume 277))

Abstract

Liquified industrial gases and liquified energy gases are transported, stored and used in steadily increasing amounts. Since the vapors of many of these liquified chemicals are either toxic or flammable or both, there is heightened concern amongst the public and regulatory bodies on the potential hazards in case of accidental releases.

The objective of this paper is to present the concept and results of a wind tunnel study utilizing negatively buoyant gases to investigate the dispersion of heavy gas clouds in a boundary layer disturbed by obstacles. Special emphasis will be given (1) to the derivation of scaling laws which have to be fulfilled throughout the wind tunnel experiments in order to ensure model/prototype similarity, and (2) to the development of a strategy for obtaining worst case estimates for instantaneous and continuous spills of any size for different obstacle configurations and under variing atmospheric conditions.

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© 1995 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Schatzmann, M. (1995). Accidental Releases of Heavy Gases in Urban Areas. In: Cermak, J.E., Davenport, A.G., Plate, E.J., Viegas, D.X. (eds) Wind Climate in Cities. NATO ASI Series, vol 277. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3686-2_27

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3686-2_27

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-4485-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-3686-2

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