Transportation of the Oil Slick in the Low-Temperature River

Abstract

Laboratory flume test was conducted to simulate the moving process of the oil slick for investigating the transferring law of an oil spill in the low-temperature and ice-covered river. The experimental results indicated that the transportation of the oil slick was driven by the current and the oil spreading, and the transferring speed decreased by three stages and approached the flow velocity after moving about 400 cm in the test condition. The current had double effects on the oil spending: extending for the front section and compressing for the tailing section of the slick. A model was given to predict the oil spreading on the open water. When the oil spilled in an ice-covered river, the oil was dispersed into lots of granules and adhered to the bottom surface of the ice sheet around the spilling point. These oil granules assembled and moved with the current when the flow velocity was increased to 2.5 cm/s. The transferring speed of the oil under ice was proportional to the flow velocity. It was almost impossible for oil to infiltrate into the whole-covered ice sheet without any crevasses or ice ablation.