Back-calculation of the strength and location of hazardous materials releases using the pattern search method.

Predicting quickly and accurately the strength and location of hazardous materials releases becomes a critical problem in emergency rescue. A technique that coupled the concentrations observed in the downwind direction of the source with a dispersion model was presented to back-calculate the strength and location of the release source by using the pattern search method. The technique was described as an optimization problem with an objective function constructed from a sum of squared errors between the observed concentrations and the calculated concentrations. The utility of the pattern search method was illustrated by testing the simulation data with practical data. The advantages of the method were demonstrated by a comparison with a gradient-based algorithm and an intelligent optimization algorithm. The computations indicate that this method can achieve optimal solutions in a relatively shorter time, hence more efficiently meeting the needs of emergency rescue.