Laboratory modeling of man-made disasters

Abstract

The paper presents an experimental approach to predicting the consequences of technogenic accidents. This approach consists in laboratory modeling of the process of heavy impurities transfer in conditions of orographically inhomogeneous surface. The paper provides a qualitative description of chlorine release at Soda-Chlorate Ltd in the city of Berezniki, prepared within the framework of this approach. The experimental model is a three-dimensional model of the area that takes into account the relief as well as the height and location of buildings on the territory of almost 6 square kilometers. The parameters of the experiment were selected for qualitative modeling of the process of chlorine/air mixture propagation in the atmosphere. Various scenarios of chlorine emission were considered. It is shown that the terrain plays a significant role in the propagation process. For all cases it is obtained that the impurity does not reach the boundary of residential areas. This result correlates with the data of field observations.