A LABORATORY MODEL FOR THE TWO-PHASE FLOW CONTAMINANT TRANSIENT IN MULTI-POROUS MEDIA

Abstract

The environmental behavior of rock and oil pollutants in soil has long been a focus of environmental protection research. In this research, a laboratory model was established to study the oil pollutant transfer process in two stages. Two samples from porous media of sandy soil and agricultural soil (organic) were used with oil as a pollutant. The oil is pumped through a system consisting of two pipes with a length of 4 m and a diameter of 0.07 m. Each pipe is assigned to a specific type of soil. The results showed that the organic soil needs a long time for the pollutants to travel over greater distances, while the sandy soil showed its ability to absorb and drain the pollutants and get rid of them faster. However, it was also found that both soils contain a small percentage of the pollutant after the water washing process, which lasts for more than (5 hours). The remaining oil percentage is estimated at about (0.1 ml), which is a very small percentage, and it is possible to get rid of it by increasing the washing time. It was found that the physical properties of the soil such as permeability and porosity have a significant effect on slowing down the speed of the pollutant and its transmission through the porous medium.