Development of a fluvial oil-particle aggregate (OPA) drift simulator to evaluate the fate and transport of contaminated sediment in rivers

To be able to mitigate the effects of inland oil spills in freshwater environments, a fast, robust, user-friendly model is required for rapid response purposes. Being able to predict the fate and transport of oil-particle aggregates (OPA) is important for alleviating much of the long-term effects of riverine spills. A model for this purpose is developed by incorporating OPA formation algorithms from suspended sediments to an existing model that has the capability of transporting pre-formed OPA with a random walk scheme through unsteady HEC-RAS domains. For the sake of showing the importance of considering OPA formation, a range of parameters were tested with and without OPA formation. The main parameters tested in this research are the oil droplet diameter, suspended sediment grain size, and the magnitude of flow velocity. The conditions in which it is most important to consider OPA formation for accurate transport predictions are small oil droplet diameters, large sediment grain sizes, and low flow velocities. Under the inverse conditions, there is little benefit for modeling OPA formation. This knowledge will be important for users to consider while making decisions with this model for oil spill rapid response for the specific event that is being considered.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Civil Engineering

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2020

Author dc:creator

• Berens, John Matthew

Contributors dc:contributor

• Garcia, Marcelo H

• Oil
• Spill
• Fluvial
• Transport
• OPA
• River
• Kalamazoo
• Coagulation
• Model

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2020 John Berens

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/108062

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/108062