Ammonia large scale atmospheric dispersion experiments in industrial configurations

Rémy Bouet (1) , Stéphane Duplantier (1) , Olivier Salvi (1)

1 INERIS - Institut National de l'Environnement Industriel et des Risques

A programme of large-scale experiments for atmospheric dispersion was carried out by INERIS over a period extending from December 1996 to April 1997. The objectives of the test campaign were to measure anhydrous ammonia concentrations in a range of few meters to 2 km from the release, in order to generate data to be used to improve 2-phase release modelling. The discharges were released from a 6-tonne storage tank of pressurised liquid ammonia and through a discharge device with an outlet diameter of 2 inches. Fifteen trials were carried out with various release configurations corresponding to industrial situations (impinging jets on the ground and on a wall at various distances, release through a flange without seal...). The quantity of ammonia discharged from the liquid phase varied according to the tests, from 1.4 ton to 3.5 tons for durations between 7 and 14 minutes and, therefore, at flow rates between 2 and 4.5 kg/s. Approximately 200 sensors were settled downwind to measure ammonia concentrations and temperature in the plume. These tests showed that for discharges with identical flow rates the distances corresponding to the same concentration vary a lot according to the configurations. These distances tend to be reduced by the presence of obstacles or bounds that collected liquid ammonia. In the paper, the main experimental results are presented in order to enable the comparisons with numerical predictions.

Domaines: Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]

Rémy Bouet, Stéphane Duplantier, Olivier Salvi. Ammonia large scale atmospheric dispersion experiments in industrial configurations. International Conference "Bhopal gas tragedy and its effects on process safety", Dec 2004, Kanpur, India. pp.147. ⟨ineris-00972478⟩