Heat Transfer Effects During Cold Dense Gas Dispersion: Wind-Tunnel Simulation of Cold Gas Spills

Wind-tunnel concentration data were obtained for continuous area releases of ambient temperature Freon–air mixtures, cold N2, cold CO2, and cold CH4 clouds. Heat transfer and humidity effects on model concentration distributions were significant for methane plumes when surface Richardson numbers Ri* were large (i.e., low wind speed and high boiloff rate conditions). At field scales heat transfer and humidity will still play a role in the dispersion of methane spill cases, but plume dilution and liftoff are not expected to be as exaggerated as for the model cases.