Hydraulic modelling of heavy-gas emission from terrain

Plume trajectories and patterns of ground-level concentration of dense well opening emissions in complex terrain sites were derived from model simulations in water channel facilities. A satisfactory agreement was found among model results, field observations and theoretical models concerning plume rise and effluent dilution. This confirms the reliability of this technique when applied to previsional studies of natural gas venting or industrial losses from chemical factories and its capability to show details of the phenomenology under investigation. (author)