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Overland oil spill batch modeling of multiple leaks from pipelines considering heat transfer for high viscosity and high pour point oils
DescriptionAssessing the areas impacted by overland oil spills from well blowouts, tank breaks and pipeline leaks may be highly dependent on the changes in the fluid physical properties as the oil cools down. In this work, we discuss a novel modeling approach to overland oil spills based on a viscous flow two-dimensional model: OilFlow2D. The model solves the continuity and momentum equations for non-Newtonian fluids and the energy equation to determine the oil temperature. The finite-volume numerical solution on flexible meshes is parallelized for Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) devices, reduced computational times compared with sequential code.
We present an application where the oil start flowing in an environment with temperature, wind speed, and solar radiation that vary during the simulation time. The oil is characterized by its specific heat and tables representing the time-dependent density, viscosity, and yield stress. The model includes a tool to calculates spill volumes and leak times from multiple locations along the pipeline.
The results show that the oil starts cooling as soon as it emanates from the leak points and changes its properties as it flows over complex topography. The oil accumulates near the spill location while the temperatures are relatively high. However, as the oil flows away from the well, it cools down until it eventually comes to a complete stop.
This approach allows processing of hundreds of spills required in pipeline integrity assessments and enables realistic spill simulations considering complex topography and constitutes a novel and practical approach to oil spill risk evaluation.
Event Type
Poster
TimeMonday, May 13th5:00pm - 6:00pm CDT
LocationExhibit Hall G
Tags
Preparedness
Prevention
Remediation
Response
Restoration