Numerical Investigation into the effects of obstacles on heavy gas dispersions in the atomsphere

School of Engineering, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, Lancashire, PR1 2HE, the UK

^* Corresponding author: aalakalabi@uclan.ac.uk

Abstract

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach is applied to investigate heavy gas dispersion in the atmosphere, under the action of wind. Because of the effect of buoyancy, steady double peaks of the heavy gas concentrations in the downstream area are observed from the numerical results. The double peaks of the concentrations are a special pattern of heavy gas dispersion, which cannot be found in the neutral gas dispersions. Four types of obstacles are placed behind the leakage source to study the influences of these obstacles to the heavy gas dispersions. The numerical results show the detailed shapes and other contents of the heavy clouds under the obstacles.