Modelling accidental releases of dangerous gases into the lower troposphere from mobile sources

Abstract

The article reports the results of different methods of modelling releases and dispersion of dangerous gases or vapours in cases of major accidents from road and rail transportation in urban zones. Transport accidents of dangerous substances are increasingly frequent and can cause serious injuries in densely inhabited areas or pollution of the environment. For quantitative risk assessment and mitigation planning, consequence modelling is necessary.The modelling of dangerous substance dispersion by standard methods does not fully represent the behaviour of toxic or flammable clouds in obstructed areas such as street canyons. Therefore the predictions from common software packages as ALOHA, EFFECTS, TerEx should be augmented with CFD models or physical modelling in aerodynamic tunnels, and further studies are planned to do this.The goal of this article is to present the results of the first approach of modelling using these standard methods and to demonstrate the importance of the next development stage in the area of transport accident modelling of releases and dispersions of dangerous substances in urban zones in cases of major accident or terrorist attacks.

LNG as a potential alternative fuel – Safety and security of storage facilities

“…It may be transported as a compressed gas in road tankers or used as fuel in ships. The hazards of this and other gases in transport have been reported previously (Bernatik et al, 2008).…”

Dispersion Characteristics of Hazardous Gas and Exposure Risk Assessment in a Multiroom Building Environment

“…The ventilation rate (Q, m 3 /s) is calculated by the integral of the velocity at the inlet opening. The calculation methods are expressed as Equations (7) and (8) for the single-sided ventilation room and the cross-ventilated room, respectively:…”

“…Many industrial accidents result from the accidental release of hazardous gases. Bernatik et al [7] reviewed the results of different methods of modelling releases and dispersion of dangerous gases in cases of major accidents from road and rail transportation. One of the most severe cases was the release of H 2 S in the town of Gao-qiao, Kai Xian, China on December 23, 2003, which caused 243 deaths and the evacuation of approximately 64,000 residents [8].…”

Simulation and modeling in crisis management

“…A direct comparison of two selected SWs is given in Ficek et al [7]. From the point of view of simulation and modeling, Inanloo et al [8] achieved very interesting results in modeling the combustion vapor explosion.Bernatik et al [9] dealt with the much needed addition of models of computational fl uid dynamics for common SW such as Terex or Aloha or physical modeling in aerodynamic tunnels which provides data that can be compared with the outputs of conventional SW. This issue is addressed also in scientifi c circles as can be seen in previous paragraph.…”