Common Problems in Modeling of Thermal Plumes in Air and Water

摘要

This paper identifies several important problems in the development of one-dimensional mathematical models for vapor plume dispersion and thermal discharges in water. One-dimensional integral models provide a reliable means of identifying modeling problems since they are relatively free of computational difficulties, rely on simple mixing relationships, are easy to use, and permit extensive model/data comparisons. In effect, the models for thermal discharges in water have the same fundamental problems as do the cooling tower plume models (difficulty with highly buoyant plumes, empirical treatment of simple boundary interferences, etc.) but to a lesser extent. However, surface discharge models suffer greater practical, site-specific problems (irregular bottom and shoreline, transient effects, etc.). The problems most common to cooling tower and thermal plume models relate to the treatment of buoyancy and the interaction with boundaries. (ERA citation 08:024252)