gas leakage

[altoid3000]

There is one gas source in the center of a huge cylindrical steel storage tank. this gas is heavier than air. I want to do some quick calculations to find out how much gas will leak out of the structure and how much of it will stay. There are going to be effects of wind entering the tank through vents at the top if the cylinder. The tank itself is not air tight. Effects of temperature gradients in the grain, sun radiation are also there. Without doing any elaborate modeling, if I want to get some reasonable results, what will you suggest? Any references to look up? I know ASME type publications give a lot of emperical equations that can be applied to quickly solve industrial type problem. Let me know. Any "thinking out loud" type of comments will also help me. Thank you very much.

 

[aspearin1]

You will need find out how diffusion at the interface of these gasses is affected by heat and forced air convection. Think of it as "dissolving" the heavy gas in the lighter gas where they both meet until it's saturated at a given temperature... and then a gust comes and blows that saturated interface away, and the process will start over again. Your choice in variables appears to be valid. Sorry I can't offer any resources. Just "thinking out loud." Gaseous diffusion, Flux, and convection may be some keywords to look for.

ChemE, M.E. EIT
"The only constant in life is change." -Bruce Lee