Cormix: An Expert System for Mixing Zone Analysis

Abstract

United States water quality policy includes the concept of a mixing zone, a limited area where initial dilution of a discharge occurs. Current practice in mixing zone analysis is plagued by a number of problems --mixing zone definitions vary widely; there is a diversity of discharge and site conditions; existing models focus on near-field mixing while legal definitions extend to greater distances; and there are a large number of permitting applications needing review. The Cornell Mixing Zone Expert System (CORMIX) is a series of software elements for analysis and design of submerged buoyant or nonbuoyant discharges containing conventional or toxic pollutants into stratified or unstratified waters, with emphasis on the geometry and dilution characteristics of the initial mixing zone. Subsystem CORMIX1 deals with single port discharges, CORMIX2 addresses multiport diffusers, and subsystem CORMIX3 analyzes surface discharges. The software is implemented on microcomputers using the MS-DOS operating system. It contains two key elements -- 1) a rigorous flow classification scheme that analyzes the near-field behavior of a discharge and 2), a collection of predictive elements for each discharge scenario. This paper describes the development philosophy underlining CORMIX, the capabilities of the three subsystems, and describes the procedure for obtaining the software.