Selection of Cases for Atmospheric Dispersion Modeling

In many industrial facilities, toxic and/or flammable substances are discharged directly to the atmosphere. To ensure compliance with health, safety and environmental regulations, it is important to determine the potential consequences to the public and to personnel working in the facilities. Atmospheric dispersion modeling is a useful tool to provide plant owners the information to make decision in such cases. However, there are numerous potential releases from multiple scenarios, and hence it can be impractical to perform modelling for all cases. Typical industrial standards do not provide sufficient guidance for users about how to effectively choose the representative cases to model. This paper offers the guidance on selecting the relevant cases to perform atmospheric dispersion modeling based on the configuration of relief devices, the nature of discharged fluid, and points of interest in facility.