Abstract
The leakage of hazardous chemicals during storage and transport processes is a kind of commonly occurring accident that can pose a serious threat to people’s lives and property. This paper aims to investigate the airflow and dispersion characteristics of hazardous gas around a multiroom building, and evaluate the corresponding exposure risks. The effects on indoor air quality (IAQ) when polluted air enters a room under different indoor and external conditions were examined by using a computational fluid dynamics technique. First, the numerical model established herein was verified by the available wind-tunnel experimental data, and acceptable agreement was found between the predicted and measured velocities. Subsequently, the effects of different natural ventilation paths, wall porosities and outdoor pollutant source characteristics on the airflow and contaminant distribution were evaluated. The study not only reveals the airflow pattern and concentration distribution in indoor spaces under different natural ventilation conditions but also quantitatively analyzes the relationship between the probability of death and the corresponding source strength under the circumstance of pollutant leakage near a building. The results can be useful for the prevention and control of hazardous chemical gas leakages and provide some guidance on evacuation after an accidental or routine leakage.
Highlights
In recent years, the dispersion of pollutants in different building environments due to either accidental or routine releases has become a typical problem in environmental protection issues [1–3].With the development of industry, large amounts of dangerous substances are transported by road and rail, and transport accidents of dangerous substances are increasingly frequent
The relative variation ratio of the normalized ventilation rate in R1 is the largest, especially under VP3 and Ventilation path 5 (VP5), and the variation can be up to 1 time because R1 is in single-sided natural ventilation mode under VP3 and VP5, and the airflow rate entering this room is more affected by the window size compared to the cross-ventilated rooms
Reasonable natural ventilation strategies have the advantages of saving energy and ensuring indoor air quality
Summary
The dispersion of pollutants in different building environments due to either accidental or routine releases has become a typical problem in environmental protection issues [1–3].With the development of industry, large amounts of dangerous substances are transported by road and rail, and transport accidents of dangerous substances are increasingly frequent. The dispersion of pollutants in different building environments due to either accidental or routine releases has become a typical problem in environmental protection issues [1–3]. Gaseous hazardous chemical leakage during storage and transport processes is a common accident [4,5]. Once the leakage of hazardous chemicals happens during transport process, the released toxic gases generate cloud in street canyons and can cause huge disaster through their physical or chemical properties. The majority of incidents involving the release of hazardous gas affect outdoor environments, the gas from such incidents can diffuse indoors through the intake of ventilation systems or any kind of openings when the pollutant source is near a building and possibly cause serious consequences for the occupants [6]. Many industrial accidents result from the accidental release of hazardous gases
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