Griffin, Robert2019-05-172019-05-172018-052018-04-19May 2018Bi, Shiyang. "Simulation of the Atmospheric Fate and Transport of Chemicals from Aboveground Storage Tank Leakage Post Severe Storms." (2018) Master’s Thesis, Rice University. <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/1911/105707">https://hdl.handle.net/1911/105707</a>.https://hdl.handle.net/1911/105707Hurricanes can damage the industrial infrastructure containing hazardous chemicals, which causes widespread environmental pollution in both water and air systems. To estimate the regional atmospheric concentration of evaporated spill material, as well as of secondary pollutants ozone (O3) and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) from petrochemicals released from aboveground storage tanks (AST) leakage post hurricanes, a Lagrangian particle dispersion model associated with a detailed non-linear zero-dimensional Eulerian chemistry model was developed. The developed model couples the EFDC-SS water quality model for simulating the transport of spill material along the storm surge, the FLEXPART model for simulating the physical transport of evaporated spill material, The Master chemical mechanism for simulating the gas-phase chemistry, Volatility basis set approach for simulating the SOA formation, and the resistance model for simulating dry deposition processes. Five runs were conducted to evaluated various hurricane scenarios (Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Ike), combined with different types of spill materials (oils and organic solvents) released under different cloud conditions. Results show that the downwind plumes of oils with slower evaporation rates are predicted to cover a broader region while the organic solvent plumes are more concentrated and move along the wind trajectory. It is also determined that the downwind plume concentration is predicted to be higher under lower planetary boundary (PBL) height and stable PBL conditions during the night. Additionally, results show that O3 and SOA formation is significant within the downwind plume and largely depends on the solar radiation intensity and the types of spill materials. This research helps to highlight the vulnerability of downwind regions to evaporated spill materials and lends insight to secondary pollutant formation within the downwind plume.application/pdfengCopyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.Aboveground storage tank failureDownwind concentrationOzone and secondary organic aerosol formationThesis2019-05-17