How to minimize the environmental contamination caused by hydrocarbon releases by onshore pipelines: The key role of a three-dimensional three-phase fluid flow numerical model

TL;DR

This paper develops a high-resolution 3D numerical model to predict oil migration from onshore pipeline leaks, aiding rapid environmental contamination response strategies.

Contribution

It introduces a novel 3D shock-capturing numerical model for accurate simulation of oil contaminant migration in variably saturated zones.

Findings

Leak pressure significantly affects contaminant arrival time.

Water saturation influences migration timing.

Unsaturated zone depth impacts oil migration behavior.

Abstract

The contamination impact and the migration of the contaminant into the surrounding environment due to the presence of a spilled oil pipeline will cause significant damage to the natural ecosystem. For this reason, it is decisive to develop a rapid response strategy that might include accurate predictions of oil migration trajectories from numerical simulation modeling. In this paper, a three-dimensional model based on a high-resolution shock-capturing conservative method to resolve the nonlinear governing partial differential equations of the migration of a spilled light nonaqueous liquid oil contaminant in a variably saturated zone is employed to investigate the migration of the oil pipeline leakage with great accuracy. The effects on the oil type density, gasoline and diesel oil, the unsaturated zone depth, its saturation, the hydraulic gradient, and the pressure oil pipeline are investigated through the temporal evolution of the contaminant migration following the saturation profiles of the three-phase fluids flow in the variably saturated zone. The calculation results indicate that the leaking oil's pressure is the parameter that significantly affects the contaminants' arrival time to the groundwater table. Also, the water saturation of the unsaturated zone influences the arrival time as the water saturation increases for a fixed depth. The unsaturated zone depth significantly influences the contaminant migration unsaturated zone. At the same time, the oil density and the hydraulic gradient have limited effects on the contaminant migration in the variably saturated zone.