Laboratory simulation on drifting of hazardous chemical substance

Abstract

The continuously increase of hazardous chemicals transportation leads to a high risk of chemicals leakage. Researches on drifting of chemical substances are of vital importance in damage reducing. Laboratory simulation on drifting of hazardous chemical substance carried out inside a wave tank at the Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory. Different environmental conditions (wind, wave, etc.) were simulated in the wave tank to find out the influence of these factors on substance drifting and diffusion. To identify the difference between hazardous substance, floating ball and dyed petroleum oil were used to simulate solid and liquid floating hazardous chemical substance. The result revealed that wave can improve diffusion, the diffusion speed varies with wave height. Wind can drive surface substance, the drifting coefficient ranges from 2.1% to 3.0%, while liquid drifting coefficient is relatively larger. The laboratory results provide a basis for the study on the drifting and diffusion of hazardous chemicals at sea. Meanwhile, the coefficient could be applied as a correction in numerical models to improve prediction accuracy.