The number of practical applications for the use of FDS is extensive. In this paper, the use of FDS for the dispersion of fuel gases in a room and outdoor dispersion of process chemicals with wind were explored. For the indoor gas leak situation, modeling of the possible gas concentration distributions over time has been demonstrated. FDS allows one to simulate practically any ventilation and leak scheme. Gas migration throughout a multi-room/multi-level area building can easily be simulated, as well. Also, leakage of process chemicals from equipment items in a process plant has been demonstrated. The model has been developed with fire simulation in mind, but the governing equations and numerics are equally valid for a wide range of low mach number fluid dynamics problems, such as these:

Currently there are some limitations in the application of FDS for dispersion prediction. In conducting the investigation described in this paper, dispersion of vapors from a gasoline spill was also of interest. FDS requires a specified source rate history. In the gasoline spill case, the problem encountered in problem setup was the fact that the gasoline vaporization rate is influenced by the concentration (or partial pressure) difference between the surface (liquid saturation pressure) and the mixture adjacent to the surface. This concentration (or partial pressure) difference is the driving force for vaporization. It is expected that simple vaporization routine could be incorporated into FDS fairly easily, but the user would have to modify FDS. There are risks in such...