Influence of wind speed and ammonia concentration on its evaporation rate from aqueous solution spills

In the event of an accidental spill of an aqueous solution of ammonia, a toxic cloud can be generated, being the ammonia evaporation rate a key issue. In this communication, new experimental data have been obtained at different initial ammonia concentrations and air speeds. The evolution of the evaporation rate, of the ammonia concentration in the solution and of the solution temperature have been studied. Three phases have been clearly identified in the evaporation process, affected by the ammonia concentration, the evaporation rate and the condensation of water. A simple model has also been proposed, based on previous ones from the literature and now including the condensation of water. The proposed model has been compared with experimental data. Although some scattering has been found, it still proves itself useful at predicting the source term in the event of an accidental spill.

Automated summary

New experimental data on accidental spills of aqueous ammonia solution were obtained in this study. A simplified model was proposed and proved useful in predicting the source term.