A number of release tests and simulation calculations were conducted to evaluate the dispersion phenomena of refrigerants. The purpose of these evaluations was to assess the risk of flammable refrigerants. Since a substantial number of catastrophic leaks have been reported, very rapid leak tests were performed (Clodic 1997a). The results include most major properties of dispersion phenomena, such as effect of leak velocity, amount and height. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations showed good agreement with experimental data, but required long computation times due to the large number of elements and complicated calculation equations.

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