Simulation of oil pollution in the Persian Gulf near Assaluyeh oil terminal

Multiphase CFD simulation of the nearshore spilled oil behaviors

Oil spills are a serious environmental problem. To better support risk assessment and pollution control for oil spills, a good understanding of oil transport in the environment is required. This study focused on the numerical simulation of the nearshore oil behaviors based on computational fluid dynamics. Based on the Navier-Stokes momentum equations for an incompressible viscous fluid and volume of fluid (VOF) method, a 3D numerical model of three-phase transient flow was developed. The wave number, averaged flow velocity and oil properties would affect the oil spread extent and the oil volume fraction. The higher the averaged flow velocity and wave number, the lower the oil concentration, and the faster the horizontal movement of the oil. The spilled oil may move to contact the seafloor by increasing the averaged flow velocity at the inlet boundary. Through increasing the wave number, the oil would stay near the water surface. In the nearshore, where the wave is the main seawater motion, the oil containment boom should be set preferentially to the direction of wave transmission for oil cleaning. This study shows that by doubling the wave number and increasing the averaged flow velocity (ten times) at the same time, the maximum oil volume fraction would be reduced by around 32%. Finally, the water temperature had no significant impact on the oil migration, and the impact of evaporation should be considered in the simulation.

Numerical simulation of the impact of an integrated renovation project on the Maowei Sea hydrodynamic environment

Integrated renovation projects are important for marine ecological environment protection. Three-dimensional hydrodynamics and water quality models are developed for the Maowei Sea to assess the hydrodynamic environment base on the MIKE3 software with high resolution meshes. The results showed that the flow velocity changed minimally after the project, decreasing by approximately 0.12 m/s in the east of the Maowei Sea area and increasing by approximately 0.01 m/s in the northeast of the Shajing Port. The decrease in tidal prism (~ 2.66 × 10⁶ m³) was attributed to land reclamation, and accounted for just 0.86% of the pre-project level. The water exchange half-life increased by approximately 1 day, implying a slightly reduced water exchange capacity. Siltation occurred mainly in the reclamation and dredging areas, amounting to back-silting of approximately 2 cm/year. Reclamation project is the main factor causing the decrease of tidal volume and weakening the hydrodynamics in Maowei Sea. Adaptive management is necessary for such a comprehensive regulation project. According to the result, we suggest that reclamation works should strictly prohibit and dredging schemes should optimize in the subsequent regulation works.

An Assessment of Marine Ecosystem Damage from the Penglai 19-3 Oil Spill Accident

Oil spills have immediate adverse effects on marine ecological functions. Accurate assessment of the damage caused by the oil spill is of great significance for the protection of marine ecosystems. In this study the observation data of Chaetoceros and shellfish before and after the Penglai 19-3 oil spill in the Bohai Sea were analyzed by the least-squares fitting method and radial basis function (RBF) interpolation. Besides, an oil transport model is provided which considers both the hydrodynamic mechanism and monitoring data to accurately simulate the spatial and temporal distribution of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) in the Bohai Sea. It was found that the abundance of Chaetoceros and shellfish exposed to the oil spill decreased rapidly. The biomass loss of Chaetoceros and shellfish are 7.25×1014~7.28×1014 ind and 2.30×1012~2.51×1012 ind in the area with TPH over 50 mg/m3 during the observation period, respectively. This study highlights the evaluation of ecological resource loss caused by the oil spill, which is useful for the protection and restoration of the biological resources following the oil spill.

Effect of water flow on the release flux of dense non-aqueous phase liquids from the riverbed-take dichloromethane as an example

This research is intended to study the effect of water flow on the release flux of DNAPLs, which have been deposited on the riverbed surface after sudden water pollution accidents. Those contaminants will slowly diffuse from the riverbed into the overlying water body through hydrodynamic action, causing ongoing and serious water pollution. By taking dichloromethane as a typical contaminant, the release form under different hydrodynamic conditions was observed through flume experiments, and the response relationship between the release flux and hydrodynamic factors was analyzed, with an emphasis on parameterizing the release rate. The results suggested that stronger water disturbance significantly enhanced the release of contaminants. And the relationship between the release flux and hydrodynamic factors generally followed an exponential distribution (R² > 0.94). Besides, the mathematical relationships between the release flux and the average flow velocity, shear force and turbulent intensity were established as follows: F=183.63×e0.332u-, F=617.78×e22.292τ and F=119.03×e2.127TKE. Thus, this study has offered a solution to solve the source term quantification problem of the differential equation of convective diffusion, which can provide the basis for further developing the mathematical models of this kind of pollutants.

Numerical Simulation of Flow Velocity Characteristics during Capsule Hydraulic Transportation in a Horizontal Pipe

Capsule hydraulic transportation is a kind of low-carbon and environmentally friendly pipeline transportation technique. In this study, the flow velocity characteristics in the pipeline when the capsule is transported in a straight pipe section were simulated by adopting the RNG (Renormalization Group) k–ε turbulence model based on Fluent software and experimentally verified. The results showed that the simulated value of flow velocity in the pipeline was basically consistent with the experimental value during transportation of the material by the capsule, and the maximum relative error was no more than 6.7%, proving that it is feasible to use Fluent software to simulate the flow velocity characteristics in the pipeline when the capsule is transported in a straight pipe section. In the process of material transportation, the flow velocity distribution of the cross-section near the upstream and downstream sections of the capsule was basically the same, which increased with the increased length–diameter ratio of the capsule. The axial flow velocity was smaller in the middle of the pipe and larger near the inner wall of the pipe. From the inner wall to the center of the pipe, the radial flow velocity first increased and then decreased. The circumferential flow velocity was distributed in the vicinity of the support body of the capsule. The axial flow velocity of the annular gap section around the capsule first increased and then decreased from the inner wall of the pipe to the outer wall of the capsule. In the process of transporting materials, the influence of the capsule on the flow of its downstream section was greater than that of its upstream section. These results could provide a theoretical basis for optimizing the technical parameters of capsule hydraulic transportation.

Coiled Plant Tendril Bioinspired Fabrication of Helical Porous Microfibers for Crude Oil Cleanup

Fabrication of the helical fibers with sheath/core structure comprising 3D interconnected porous polystyrene (PS) and ductile polyvinylidene fluoride is inspired by coiled plant tendril. The key innovation point applied in this study is to produce a helical porous system based on sheath/core structure that can come into being a huge storage space in the sorption process for crude oil. More importantly, the mechanical properties confirm to have a more excellent improvement than that of the initial PS fibers, which make it become a possible candidate for the large-area sorption and reuse of crude oil from the ocean or industry. The bioinspired fabricating strategy opens a significant avenue between the coaxial electrospinning and crude oil contamination cleanup. It is also expected that the unique structure can make it a promising candidate for applications in energy conversion, tissue engineering, and intelligent devices.