TY - JOUR
T1 - Simulation of scenarios of oil droplet formation from the Deepwater Horizon blowout
AU - Zhao, Lin
AU - Boufadel, Michel C.
AU - Adams, Eric
AU - Socolofsky, Scott A.
AU - King, Thomas
AU - Lee, Kenneth
AU - Nedwed, Timothy
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd.
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - Knowledge of the droplet size distribution (DSD) from the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) blowout is an important step in predicting the fate and transport of the released oil. Due to the absence of measurements of the DSD from the DWH incident, we considered herein hypothetical scenarios of releases that explore the realistic parameter space using a thoroughly calibrated DSD model, VDROP-J, and we attempted to provide bounds on the range of droplet sizes from the DWH blowout within 200 m of the wellhead. The scenarios include conditions without and with the presence of dispersants, different dispersant treatment efficiencies, live oil and dead oil properties, and varying oil flow rate, gas flow rate, and orifice diameter. The results, especially for dispersant-treated oil, are very different from recent modeling studies in the literature.
AB - Knowledge of the droplet size distribution (DSD) from the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) blowout is an important step in predicting the fate and transport of the released oil. Due to the absence of measurements of the DSD from the DWH incident, we considered herein hypothetical scenarios of releases that explore the realistic parameter space using a thoroughly calibrated DSD model, VDROP-J, and we attempted to provide bounds on the range of droplet sizes from the DWH blowout within 200 m of the wellhead. The scenarios include conditions without and with the presence of dispersants, different dispersant treatment efficiencies, live oil and dead oil properties, and varying oil flow rate, gas flow rate, and orifice diameter. The results, especially for dispersant-treated oil, are very different from recent modeling studies in the literature.
KW - Deepwater Horizon
KW - Droplet size distribution
KW - Jets and plumes
KW - Oil spill
KW - Population balance model
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U2 - 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.10.068
DO - 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.10.068
M3 - Article
C2 - 26581815
AN - SCOPUS:84949032508
SN - 0025-326X
VL - 101
SP - 304
EP - 319
JO - Marine Pollution Bulletin
JF - Marine Pollution Bulletin
IS - 1
ER -