Effects of Hydrocarbon Spills from an Oil Pipeline Break on Ground Water

摘要

The study was undertaken to determine the effect of an oil spill, which might becaused by a seismic event rupturing a crude oil pipe line which crosses the recharge area of the Memphis Sands Aquifer. To do this, two numerical models were used to simulate a potential rupture of the 40 inch crude oil pipeline located in Wolf River fluvial valley susceptible to liquefaction. The simulation approach used two two-dimensional upstream weighted finite element models to predict the three-dimensional flow phenomenon of released crude in the saturated and unsaturated zones. ARMOS (Areal Multiphase Organic Simulator) was used to simulate the crude oil migration horizontally and to evaluate the extent of the crude dispersion on the ground water table.