Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

The release of chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN) agents as well as other toxic industrial materials in a densely populated urban environment and the subsequent dispersion and contamination is a critically important problem directly related to the safety of the residents. The proposed research is a collaborative project between the University of Manitoba, Waterloo CFD Engineering Consulting Inc. (WATCFD) and Defence R&D Canada - Suffield. The overall objective of this proposal focuses on developing an advanced, fully validated, state-of-the-science numerical simulation system based on the method of hybrid RANS/LES for improved prediction and investigation of turbulent flow and dispersion in a complex urban environment. This advanced numerical simulation system will be developed using C/C++ and FORTRAN 90/95 programming languages based on the message-passing interface. High-performance computations will be conducted using two supercomputers. In order to validate the numerical simulation system developed, a two-stage strategy will be used: firstly, the predictions from the numerical system will be compared to two data sets obtained from a direct numerical simulation (at low and moderate Reynolds numbers); and secondly, the predictions will be assessed against three sets of high-quality laboratory and field experimental data (at high Reynolds numbers). The advanced numerical simulation system developed through this project will provide a general high-fidelity predictive tool that can be used by emergency planners and environmental engineers for assessing hazards and managing the consequences arising from a toxic agent incident in a Canadian city. Furthermore, this system can be used to aid in forensics analysis by providing a comprehensive post-event reconstruction of the toxic agent incident through computer simulation. Finally, this system will provide a decision-making simulation tool for engineers to choose the construction site, design the layout and evaluate the environmental impact for new factories involving the manufacture, storage and transportation of toxic industrial materials.