Empirical research on diffusion behavior of leaked gas in the ground

Chemical plants and gas utilities own large underground pipelines to transport material such as combustible gas. For example, city gas utilities in Japan have about 230,000 km of pipelines, even if only the pipelines to deliver gas to their customers are considered. Any accidents involving such pipelines can lead to enormous human and physical damage, and their security is therefore a top-priority issue for utilities. For the safety management of underground pipelines, in addition to assessment of the long-term reliability of pipeline materials, it is extremely important to understand the diffusion behavior of gases in the ground, such as the diffusion range and time, in the case of leakage, and the impact on the surrounding area is a fundamental factor to be considered in the design and maintenance of safe facilities and for emergency response. Although many papers introduce the situations of gas diffusion in the atmosphere such as indoor and outdoor conditions, only fundamental surveys have been conducted on gas diffusion in the ground, and there have been few full-scale empirical studies. This study reports the results of the verification of the diffusion behavior with full-scale gas leakage experiments simulating real underground pipelines, as well as the outcomes of the applicability test of a numerical simulation model investigated and proposed based on the results. This technical knowledge regarding security will contribute to further improvement of safety in the industry.     

Null models reveal preferential sampling, spatial autocorrelation and overfitting in habitat suitability modelling

Nowadays, species are driven to extinction at a high rate. To reduce this rate it is important to delineate suitable habitats for these species in such a way that these areas can be suggested as conservation areas. The use of habitat suitability models (HSMs) can be of great importance for the delineation of such areas. In this study MaxEnt, a presence-only modelling technique, is used to develop HSMs for 223 nematode species of the Southern Bight of the North Sea. However, it is essential that these models are beyond discussion and they should be checked for potential errors. In this study we focused on two categories (1) errors which can be attributed to the database such as preferential sampling and spatial autocorrelation and (2) errors induced by the modelling technique such as overfitting, In order to quantify these adverse effects thousands of nulls models were created. The effect of preferential sampling (i.e. some areas where visited more frequenty than others) was investigated by comparing model outcomes based from null models sampling the actual sampling stations and null models sampling the entire mapping area (Raes and ter Steege, 2007). Overfitting is exposed by a fivefold cross-validation and the influence of spatial autocorrelation is assessed by separating test and training sets in space. Our results clearly show that all these effects are present: preferential sampling has a strong effect on the selection of non-random species models. Crossvalidation seems to have less influence on the model selection and spatial autocorrelation is also strongly present. It is clear from this study that predefined thresholds are not readily applicable to all datasets and additional tests are needed in model selection.     

平原河网地区农村生活污染入河机制

以太滆运河流域前黄镇和雪堰镇为研究区,设计农村生活非点源污染调查问卷,采用随机抽样的方法,调查了39个行政村中85个自然村的农村生活污染情况。通过对问卷的统计分析得到了厕所使用类型的比例、化粪池中上清液和固体残渣的去向以及生活垃圾处置等信息。在对农村生活污染进行分类的基础上,估算出该地区农村生活污染入河系数为:CODCr,6.6%～13.3%;TN,18.1%～18.6%;TP,8.2%～12.5%。     

基于CA-气团模型的市内重气扩散模拟与研究

针对市区内的固定地点出现重气泄露,并在街区内近地扩散的事实,构造了基于细胞自动机(Cellular automata)-气团模型,用以进行上述情况模拟.将气体的宏观扩散等效视为多个气团,使用细胞自动机生成气团的运动模型.将气团的特征表示为Qi(→V0i,xi,yi),参考高斯模型确定影响半径D用以区分浓度梯度扩散Sd和自由扩散Sf,并构造了边界接触条件.假设了模拟的市内环境,使用该模型在大气稳定状态下模拟氨气扩散.结果表明:气团的扩散符合实际情况,其在某区域的个数可以代表该区域重气浓度.模拟过程中也表现出了传统模型不具备的扩散特征,这些特征与重气的实际扩散过程更为相近,从而便于逃生和灾害控制.     

环己烷泄漏事故模拟与风险控制措施研究

环己烷具有闪点低、爆炸极限宽等特点,一旦发生泄漏,着火爆炸的危险性随时存在。利用计算流体动力学模拟的方法对工程项目中环己烷的泄漏事故进行模拟及风险分析,建立环己酮生产装置的全尺寸三维模型并进行仿真计算,模拟了不同泄漏场景所形成的环己烷可燃气体云团瞬态发展过程及影响范围,并对建构筑物的布局对可燃气体云团的扩散行为的影响进行研究。研究结果表明,通过优化建构筑物布局,可有效降低该装置环己烷的燃爆风险,为企业相关装置的总图布置及环己烷泄漏的安全监控和应急响应提供有价值的参考数据。     

LNG燃料动力船三维建模及爆炸事故模拟

为了进一步推广液化天然气（LNG）燃料动力船舶的应用,利用计算流体动力学（CFD）软件FLACS进行LNG燃料动力船进行三维建模,综合考虑环境方面的因素,对LNG的泄漏扩散进行模拟,在此基础上进行爆炸事故后果模拟。对爆炸事故进行分析,得到特定事故情景下的LNG扩散半径、燃烧区域半径、爆炸对人以及建筑物的危害半径,模拟结果对船舶上的管线以及消防设施的布局有一定的指导作用,并且为进一步研究LNG燃料动力船舶的安全性提供了基础数据。     

Modeling Nutrient Export From Coastal California Watersheds

Nitrate and phosphate export coefficient models were developed for coastal watersheds along the Santa Barbara Channel in central California. One approach was based on measurements of nutrient fluxes in streams from specific land use classes and included a watershed response function that scaled export up or down depending on antecedent moisture conditions. The second approach for nutrient export coefficient modeling used anthropogenic nutrient loading for land use classes and atmospheric nutrient deposition to model export. In an application of the first approach to one watershed, the nitrate and phosphate models were within 20% of measured values for most storms. When applied to another year, both nitrate and phosphate models generally performed adequately with annual, storm‐flow, and base‐flow values within 20% of measured nutrient loadings. Less satisfactory results were found when applied to neighboring watersheds with difference percentages of land use and hydrologic conditions. Application of the second approach was less successful than the first approach.