Numerical Simulation of Propagation Characteristics of Hazardous Noxious Substances Spilled from Transport Ships

This study numerically investigates the propagation characteristics of hazardous noxious substances (HNSs) spilled from transport ships and suggests the metal model for predicting the HNS propagation velocity varied with the current velocity and HNS density. The commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code ANSYS FLUENT (V. 17.2) was used for two-dimensional simulation based on the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equation together with the standard k–ε model. The scalar transport equation was also solved to estimate the spatial and transient behaviors of HNS. The main parameters to analyze the near-field propagation characteristics of HNSs spilled from the ship were layer thickness, HNS concentration, and propagation velocity. It was found that advection becomes more dominant in propagating an HNS layer that becomes thinner as the current velocity increases. When the current velocity increased beyond a certain level (~0.75 m/s), the mixing effect made the HNS layer less dense but thicker. Consequently, lower-density HNS causes increased HNS concentrations at sea level. As the current velocity increased, the concentration distribution became homogeneous regardless of HNS density. In particular, the second-order response surface model provided for three variables on the basis of the numerical results for 15 cases with the use of the general least-squares regression method, showing a good fit. This model would be useful in estimating the propagation velocity of HNS spilled from a ship.