Numerical investigation on oil leakage and migration from the accidental hole of tank wall in oil terminal of pipeline transportation system

Abstract

As a crucial component of the oil transportation system, the oil terminal (or oil tank farm) may often appear some serious threats and damage to ecological environment and production safety for the oil leakage. An effective emergency management strategy is particularly significant, involving the accurate assessment of leakage time, oil migration path and volume distribution, etc. Therefore, the volume of fluid (VOF) and liquid phase leakage model were applied to investigate the migration and distribution characteristic after the accidental hole occurs in the tank wall, and influence factors including height and diameter of hole were considered in our study. Results show that the lower the leaking hole position is, the faster the horizontal injection rate of the leakage hole, the increase of the accumulation area of the oil on the ground, and the difference of the overall pressure value at the leakage hole is nearly four times. Under different leakage diameters, the oil spill is symmetrical. The larger the leakage diameter, the higher the amount of oil leakage and the initial leakage speed, the maximum speed is 1.5 times the minimum speed, causing harm to safety and environmental pollution. These results can quickly locate the leakage location of the tank and provide valuable references for emergency management of oil pipeline transportation system.