Atmospheric Dispersion Using Commercially Available CFD Software

Atmospheric dispersion is often performed on effluents from point sources within the Oil, Gas, Petrochemical and Chemical industries. Results may be required to: comply with mandated regulations; demonstrate due diligence; assess the boundaries of effluent plumes. Two-dimensional modeling software uses the economy of reduced dimensionality to efficiently solve the requisite equations of mathematics and physics. Inclusion of a third dimension in modeling of interconnected relationships, offer more realistic results with confidence that generally allow smaller contingencies in process operations. Results from two commercially available software packages are presented and evaluated for identical scenarios, to compare and contrast their efficacy in modeling atmospheric dispersion.