1-D Modeling of the Denebulization of Fogs by Hygroscopic Seeding
Résumé
The purpose of the study is the modeling of the denebulization of fogs by micronic hygroscopic particles from the initial seeding to the fall of the rain droplets on the ground. The microparticles generated by flares are made of hygroscopic salts. Three stages occur: first, the condensation of water vapor on solid particles, this is the deliquescent stage which is very fast and can be ignored by the model, then the stage of condensation of water vapor on liquid salted particles / evaporation of fog droplets and finally the coalescence stage when the liquid salted particles diameter become large enough. Three different salts have been tested: NaCl, CaCl2 and KCl. The 1-D modeling approach studied considers the conservation equations (salt mass, water mass, salted droplets number density, fog droplets number density), the hygroscopicity of the salts through the water activity in the aqueous solution and the coalescence induced by gravity. The model reveals that NaCl is the most efficient salt because of its stronger hygroscopicity at high dilution rates although CaCl2 is the more hygroscopic at low dilution rates. A cloud of NaCl particles of 9 μm diameter initially generated over a height of about 7 m with a number density of 12 cm−3 allows to completely dissipates a typical fog layer of 40 m within less than 13 mn. This means that 10 kg of NaCl particles could be able to clear such a fog over 13.25 ha. The model shows that a layer of 100 m can be cleared within 29 mn. From the calculations, the contribution of the coalescence to the denebulization process is less than 1%, phenomena of condensation / evaporation are preponderant for these operating conditions.