DISPERSION MODELS
Largest Practicable Release
Release with reasonable chance of occurrence; for eg.
Holes in storage tanks & process vessels, ground spills,
pipe ruptures, etc.
Largest Potential Release
Catastrophic situation resulting in release of large
quantity of material; for eg. Complete spillage of tanks
contents, rupture of large bore pipes, etc.
DISPERSION MODELS
Dispersion models describe the airborne
transport of toxic materials away from the
accident site and into the plant and
community.
Plume Model
Describes the steady state concentration of material released
from a continuous source. Eg, continuous release of gases
from smokestack.
Puff Model
Describes the temporal concentration of material from a single
release of a fixed amount of material. Eg, sudden release of
fixed amount of material due to rupture of vessel.
Plume is simply the release of continuous puffs
PLUME
1) Plume formed by continuous release of
material
PUFF
2) Puff moving downwards and dissipiates by
mixing with air.
Parameters affecting dispersion
Wind Speed
As the wind speed increases, the plume
becomes longer and narrower, the material is
carried downwind faster & is diluted faster by a
larger quantity of air.
Atmospheric Stability
It relates to vertical mixing of air. As the air temp.
decreases with height (day time) vertical motions
are favoured. At night, the air temp. decrease
less with height hence less vertical motions.
Ground Conditions, Buildings, Water,
Trees
It affects mechanical mixing at the surface,
trees and buildings increase mixing while
lakes and open areas decrease it.
Height of Release above ground level
As release height increases, ground level
concentrations are reduced as the plume
disperses at greater distance vertically.
Momentum and buoyancy of the initial
material released.
The buoyancy and momentum of the
material released changes the effective
height of the release . After the initial
momentum and buoyancy has dissipated,
the ambient turbulence mixing becomes
the dominant factor.
Movement of Plumes
Schematic depiction of instantaneous plume patterns in the vertical and
the corresponding wind speed and temperature profiles
Fanning. The plume has a large spread
horizontally and very little vertically. This
typically occurs at night in a very stable
boundary layer with strong surface inversion
and weak variable winds.
Fumigation. Is when the plume material gets
rapidly brought down to the ground level due
to downward mixing. This situation occurs
shortly after sunrise due to surface heating
and is slowly replaced by an unstable layer
that grows up to the top of the plume. This
condition is usually short-lived but results in
the highest ground level concentrations.
Looping occurs in very unstable and
convective conditions during midday and
afternoon. Large convection eddies take the
plume material in successively upward and
downward motions.
Coning This is when the plume looks like a
cone in both the horizontal and vertical scale.
This usually occurs under cloudy and windy
conditions.
Lofting The plume stays above the surface
inversion. This occurs shortly after transition from
unstable to stable conditions near sunset. The
plume can be thin or become quite thick. Depending
on the height of the stake and the rate of deepening
of the inversion layer the lofting condition may be
very transitory or it may persist for several hours.
Trapping: Plumes released in unstable atmosphere
disperse their material uniformly throughout the air.
Trapping can lead to very high ground level
concentrations when the inversion layer is low and
there are weak winds.
Stack Downwash
The 'downwash' has the effect of reducing the
effective height of release there by increasing the
ground level concentrations.
When effluents come out of a vertical stack at
low speed or low mean vertical velocity and the
horizontal flow around the stack is sufficiently
strong the plume may be drawn down in the low
pressure region in the near wake of the stack.
The is known as "stack downwash'.
Stack downwash can be avoided if the average exit
velocity in the plume is more than 1.5 times the
mean wind speed at the stack top.
To avoid the adverse effect of building downwash the height
of the stack should be 1.5 to 2.5 the height of the nearby
building whose wake can cause the plume downwash and
its entrapment into the building. This is called 'good
engineering practice stack height'.
Dry Deposition
Dry deposition refers to the transfer of airborne material both
gaseous and particulate to the earth's surface including soil,
vegetation and water (and people) - where it is removed. this
involves the absorption of the material and its removal from the
surface through chemical and biological processes(eg: lungs).
The solubility or absorptivity of the diffusing matter at the surface
determines how much the material is actually removed in this
final stage of the substrate transfer and deposition process
Nonreactive gases such as argon and helium are not removed at
all by dry deposition. Other gases might be removed through dry
deposition on vegetation, wet soil and water surfaces but not on
dry, bare surfaces
• Any explosive material has the
following characteristics:
• It is chemically or otherwise
energetically unstable.
• The initiation produces a sudden
expansion of the material usually
accompanied by the production of
heat and large changes in
pressure (and typically also a
flash or loud noise) which is
called the explosion
Hazard Class for Transport
Class 1 : Explosives
1.1 — Explosives with a mass explosion hazard.
(nitroglycerin/dynamite)
1.2 — Explosives with a blast/projection hazard.
(Ammunition/cartridges)
1.3 — Explosives with a minor blast hazard.
(rocket propellant, display fireworks)
1.4 — Explosives with a major fire hazard.
(consumer fire works, ammunition)
1.5 — Blasting agents. (Blasting caps /
detonators)
1.6 — Extremely insensitive explosives.
Class 2 : Compressed
Gases
— Three subclasses.
2.1 — Flammable gases.
(propane, hydrogen)
2.2 — Non-flammable gases.
(helium, nitrogen)
2.3 — Poison gases.
(Chlorine, phosgene)
Class 3: Flammable
Liquids —
Liquids with a flash point at or
below 140 °F (gasoline, some
alcoholic beverages)
Combustible Liquids — Liquids
with a flash point between 140 and
200 °F
Class 4: Flammables Solids
Flammable solids are materials which, under conditions
encountered in transport, are readily combustible or may
cause or contribute to fire through friction, self-reactive
substances which are liable to undergo a strongly
exothermic reaction or solid desensitized explosives.
Also included are substances which are liable to
spontaneous heating under normal transport conditions,
or to heating up in contact with air, and are consequently
liable to catch fire and substances which emit flammable
gases or become spontaneously flammable when in
contact with water.
— Three subclasses.
4.1 — Flammable solids. (magnesium powder, red
phosphorous, etc.)
4.2 — Spontaneously combustible materials. (white
phosphorous)
4.3 — Water reactive materials. (sodium, potassium)
Class 5: Oxidizing Materials
Oxidizers are defined as substances which may
cause or contribute to combustion, generally by
yielding oxygen as a result of a redox chemical
reaction. Organic peroxides are substances
which may be considered derivatives of hydrogen
peroxide where one or both hydrogen atoms of
the chemical structure have been replaced by
organic radicals.
— Two subclasses.
5.1 — Oxidizers. (ammonium nitrate, hydrogen
peroxide)
5.2 — Organic peroxides. (benzoyl peroxide)
Class 6: Toxic Materials —
Three subclasses.
6.1 — Poisonous liquids or solids. (potassium
cynide, mercuric chloride)
6.2 — Infectious/biohazardous substances.
(anthrax, HIV)
6.3 — Liquids and solids with a lower toxicity than
those in group 6.1.
Class 6: Toxic Materials —
Toxic substances are those which are liable
either to cause death or serious injury or to harm
human health if swallowed, inhaled or by skin
contact. Infectious substances are those which
are known or can be reasonably expected to
contain pathogens.
Three subclasses.
6.1 — Poisonous liquids or solids. (potassium
cynide, mercuric chloride)
6.2 — Infectious/biohazardous substances.
(anthrax, HIV)
6.3 — Liquids and solids with a lower toxicity than
those in group 6.1.
Class 7: Radioactive
Materials — Three subclasses.
7.1-7.3 — Radioactive I, II, III.
(uranium, plutonium, radioactive
waste)
Class 8: Corrosive
Materials — acids and bases
(sodium hydroxide, sulfuric acid)
Class 9: Miscellaneous
Dangerous Goods —
materials that are hazardous during
transportation but do not meet the
definition of any of the other hazard
classes, for example dry ice in an
airplane or hot asphalt).
NFPA Classification of Materials
