Retention behavior of spilled oil along riverbank

Key words:  oil pipeline  crude oil diffusion  adsorption  retention  riparian vegetation

Abstract:

To study the retention behavior and influencing factors of crude oil along riverbank after an oil spill, by controlling variables including flow velocity, bank type, vegetation type and coverage in a dynamic circulating channel, the variation of substrate adsorption and riparian oil-holding capacity under different conditions were studied. The results show that, the adsorption and retention amounts of the sand(plant-free) banks rise with the increase of the water flow rate. Flexible plant banks are more likely to retain crude oil than rigid plant banks and plant-free banks. The oil-holding capacity is about 2.87 to 6.19 times of rigid plant banks, and around 4.37 to 10.01 times of plant-free banks. Increasing vegetation coverage would increase the riparian retention, but might reduce the amount of substrate adsorption of rigid plant banks while increase the substrate adsorption of flexible plant banks. The bank morphology would have special effect on the landing behavior of oil due to the change in flow pattern along the river margin areas.