Computation of the Mixing Energy in Rivers for Oil Dispersion
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 145, Issue 10
Abstract
With the increase in transport of oil by rail, the probability of oil spills in rivers has increased. Traditionally, focus has been placed on oil slicks moving on the water surface. However, the density of bitumen oil carried by rail within and from Canada to the United States can exceed that of freshwater, causing this oil to get submerged in the water column. This also has the potential of forming oil particle aggregates (OPAs) upon interaction with suspended sediments. The energy-dissipation rate is a key parameter for predicting the formation of oil droplets, and for this purpose, expressions are developed to estimate the energy-dissipation rate at various depths in the river using easily measured quantities such as water depth, streambed slope, and streambed roughness. The formulation showed that for a stream 30 m wide with a natural slope of 1/1,000 and roughness height of 1.0 cm, the average and maximum energy-dissipation rates are 0.01 and , respectively. The average value is comparable to spilling breakers of height around 0.3 m, and the maximum value is comparable to those obtained from plunging breakers of 0.30-m-high waves. The large average value suggests that breakup of droplets in streams is higher than in the open sea under regular waves.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
Baldyga, J., and W. Podgorska. 1998. “Drop break-up in intermittent turbulence: Maximum stable and transient sizes of drops.” Can. J. Chem. Eng. 76 (3): 456–470. https://doi.org/10.1002/cjce.5450760316.
Bedient, P. B., W. C. Huber, and B. E. Vieux. 2013. Hydrology and floodplain analysis. 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Dollhopf, R., and M. Durno. 2011. “Kalamazoo River\Enbridge pipeline spill 2010.” In Proc., Int. Oil Spill Conf. Washington, DC: International Oil Spill Conference.
Drennan, W. M., M. A. Donelan, E. A. Terray, and K. B. Katsaros. 1996. “Oceanic turbulence dissipation measurements in SWADE.” J. Phys. Oceanogr. 26 (5): 808–815. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0485(1996)026%3C0808:OTDMIS%3E2.0.CO;2.
Fitzpatrick, F., et al. 2015. Oil-particle interactions and submergence from crude oil spills in marine and freshwater environments—Review of the science and future research needs. Reston, VA: USGS.
Hinze, J. 1955. “Fundamentals of the hydrodynamic mechanism of splitting in dispersion processes.” AIChE J. 1 (3): 289–295. https://doi.org/10.1002/aic.690010303.
Jones, L., and M. H. Garcia. 2018. “Development of a rapid response riverine oil-particle aggregate formation, transport, and fate model.” J. Environ. Eng. 144 (12): 04018125. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)EE.1943-7870.0001470.
Lee, K., M. Boufadel, B. Chen, J. Foght, P. Hodson, S. Swanson, and A. Venosa. 2015. The behaviour and environmental impacts of crude oil released into aqueous environments. Ottawa: Royal Society of Canada.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Spills of diluted bitumen from pipelines: A comparative study of environmental fate, effects, and response. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.
Rutherford, J. C. 1994. River mixing. Chichester, UK: Wiley.
Shen, H., P. Yapa, D. Wang, and X. Yang. 1991. A mathematical model for oil slick transport and mixing in rivers. Hanover, NH: US Army Corps of Engineers.
Terray, E. A., M. A. Donelan, Y. C. Agrawal, W. M. Drennan, K. K. Kahma, A. J. Williams, P. A. Hwang, and S. A. Kitaigorodskii. 1996. “Estimates of kinetic energy dissipation under breaking waves.” J. Phys. Oceanogr. 26 (5): 792–807. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0485(1996)026%3C0792:EOKEDU%3E2.0.CO;2.
Wickley-Olsen, E., M. C. Boufadel, T. L. King, Z. Li, K. Lee, and A. D. Venosa. 2007. “Regular and breaking waves in wave tank for dispersion effectiveness testing.” In Proc., 30th Arctic and Marine Oil spill Programs Technical Seminar, 499–508. Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Wickley-Olsen, E., M. C. Boufadel, T. L. King, Z. Li, K. Lee, and A. D. Venosa. 2008. “Regular and breaking waves in wave tank for dispersion effectiveness testing.” In Proc., Int. Oil Spill Conf., 499–508. Washington, DC.
Yapa, P. D., and H. T. Shen. 1994. “Modelling river oil spills: A review.” J. Hydraul. Res. 32 (5): 765–782. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221689409498713.
Zhao, L., M. C. Boufadel, X. Geng, K. Lee, T. King, B. Robinson, and F. Fitzpatrick. 2016. “A-DROP: A predictive model for the formation of oil particle aggregates (OPAs).” Mar. Pollut. Bull. 106 (1): 245–259. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.02.057.
Zhao, L., M. C. Boufadel, J. Katz, G. Haspel, K. Lee, T. King, and B. Robinson. 2017. “A new mechanism of sediment attachment to oil in turbulent flows: Projectile particles.” Environ. Sci. Technol. 51 (19): 11020–11028. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.7b02032.
Zhao, L., J. Torlapati, M. C. Boufadel, T. King, B. Robinson, and K. Lee. 2014. “VDROP: A comprehensive model for droplet formation of oils and gases in liquids—Incorporationof the interfacial tension and droplet viscosity.” Chem. Eng. J. 253 (Oct): 93–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2014.04.082.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
©2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 28, 2018
Accepted: Mar 1, 2019
Published online: Jul 17, 2019
Published in print: Oct 1, 2019
Discussion open until: Dec 17, 2019
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.