MODITIC: Modelling the dispersion of toxic industrial chemicals in urban environments

MODITIC was an EDA project that ran from 2012 to 2015 and was led by the Norwegian Defence Research Institute. It treated the hazards associated with toxic industrial chemicals (e.g. chlorine, ammonia etc.) that are produced, transported and stored in relatively large quantities.

The consequences of accidental or intentional (operational or malicious) release of such compounds were of concern both to military and civilian authorities. The objective was to conduct a systematic study of the release and airborne dispersion of relevant chemicals in complex urban environments for a range of atmospheric conditions, to enhance our understanding of the processes involved and thus support improvements in modelling and backtracking techniques.

The novelty of the project was the focus on European style topographies and urban characteristics, in combination with negatively buoyant emissions and non-neutral atmospheric conditions. The project performed numerical simulations, wind tunnel dispersion experiments, related source term experiments and computations for releases from pressurised vessels.