Evolution of droplets in subsea oil and gas blowouts: Development and validation of the numerical model VDROP-J |
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| Authors: | Lin Zhao Michel C. Boufadel Scott A. Socolofsky Eric Adams Thomas King Kenneth Lee |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Center for Natural Resources Development and Protection, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ 07102, USA;2. Department of Civil Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA;3. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA;4. Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Dartmouth, Canada;5. Flagship of Wealth from Oceans, Commonwealth Scientific and Industry Research Organization (CSIRO), Perth, Australia |
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| Abstract: | The droplet size distribution of dispersed phase (oil and/or gas) in submerged buoyant jets was addressed in this work using a numerical model, VDROP-J. A brief literature review on jets and plumes allows the development of average equations for the change of jet velocity, dilution, and mixing energy as function of distance from the orifice. The model VDROP-J was then calibrated to jets emanating from orifices ranging in diameter, D, from 0.5 mm to 0.12 m, and in cross-section average jet velocity at the orifice ranging from 1.5 m/s to 27 m/s. The d50/D obtained from the model (where d50 is the volume median diameter of droplets) correlated very well with data, with an R2 = 0.99. Finally, the VDROP-J model was used to predict the droplet size distribution from Deepwater Horizon blowouts. The droplet size distribution from the blowout is of great importance to the fate and transport of the spilled oil in marine environment. |
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| Keywords: | Jets and plumes Droplet size distribution Oil droplets Oil fate and transport Dispersant Oil deep spill |
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