Within the planning of e.g. chemical plants or refineries, the appropriate positioning of flare pipes or exhaust gas stacks is a typical task. In case of an escape of a hot gas flow, it mixes up and is transported with ambient air. For the positioning of nearby plants and buildings it is therefore important to know how this hot exhaust gas flow will spread and which temperatures occur in which distance from the flare pipe.
One assessment possibility is the application of analytic models. Several models allow the determination of the mixing of various gas flows with different temperatures. However, these models usually provide useful results only for greatly simplified configurations. But surrounding buildings can strongly influence wind direction as well as resulting wind forces. The application of numeric computer models (CFD = Computational Fluid Dynamics) allow the calculation of the flow field and the resulting temperature distribution. This also allows the fast and easy examination of different wind directions or wind velocities.
These results allow conclusions about where a building can be constructed in the stack’s vicinity or if a higher stack has to be built. The pictured model is very simple. It is easily possible to increase complexity by considering either terrain topology or surrounding buildings.
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