Investigation of vegetation effects on radionuclide dispersion

Abstract

In this study, we analyzed a region where accidentally released radionuclides were affected by the surrounding vegetation. A radioactive leakage accident affecting shelterbelts located on both sides of a road was selected for modeling. A model of radionuclide dispersion based on computational fluid dynamics was established considering the vegetation effect, and the radionuclide distribution under different pressure loss coefficients was obtained. The results showed that the pressure loss effects of vegetation within a certain range influenced the progression of radionuclide dispersion. The distribution of radionuclides tended to be stable during the release process due to the vortex effect between vegetation groups; this provides a reference for the consequence assessment of radioactive leakage accidents in vegetation environments.

Keywords

• vegetation effect
• pressure loss coefficient
• radionuclide
• dispersion