Computation of Flow Fields Induced by Water Spraying of an Unconfined Gaseous Plume

Abstract

Flow fields induced by the interaction of water sprays and a gaseous plume have been studied in the context of absorbing and dispersing an accidental release of toxic gas in the air. The effectiveness of water sprays in absorbing highly water soluble gases was recently demonstrated in extended laboratory and field tests. In this paper, computer simulations are presented of the Hawk, Nevada Test Site, series of water spray/HF mitigation field tests. The model used, HFSPRAY, is a Eulerean/Lagrangian model which simulates the momentum, mass and energy interactions between a water spray and a turbulent plume of HF in air; the model can predict the flow velocities, temperature, water vapor, and HF concentration fields in two-dimensional large-geometries for spraying in any direction, (i.e., down-flow, inclined-down-flow, up-flow, and co-current horizontal flow). The model was validated against recent data on spraying of water on large releases of HF. It can provide a direct input to the design of water spray systems for HF mitigation.