Observations of water and oil infiltration into soil: Some simulation challenges

Journal Article · Sun Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1989 · Water Resources Research; (USA)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/WR025i001p00073· OSTI ID:5132778

Cary, J W; McBride, J F; Simmons, C S ^[1]

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1. Pacific Northwest Laboratory, Richland, WA (USA)

Experiments were performed to test the ability of multiphase flow theory to predict the flow behavior of an immiscible organic liquid entering an unsaturated soil medium. The infiltration and redistribution behavior of water followed by oil, and of oil followed by water, in soil columns was observed. Experiments involved both liquid entry at the top of columns with downward flow and entry at the base of columns with upward flow. Two oils (specific gravity, 0.80 and 0.86; viscosity ratio relative to water, 4.7 and 77) were used in three soils: a silt loam, a sandy loam, and a sand. The results from 17 different infiltration scenarios, each about 8 hours in duration, are compared with the predicted results obtained from a simplified explicit finite difference code for three-phase flow in a one-dimensional system. The code made reasonably good predictions of water and oil redistribution in the silt loam and loamy sand, when oil followed water infiltration. It made less than satisfactory predictions for the sand, possibly because hysteresis was neglected. Infiltration time for small amounts of oil was often shorter than the code predicted for the silt loam and loamy sand. The code, which did not account for hysteresis or unstable liquid flow, also did a poor job of predicting oil and water contents when water followed oil into the soils. Visual evidence of unstable flow of the more viscous oil entering the water wet loamy sand is presented, and the implications for one- and two-dimensional experiments are discussed.

• OSTI ID: 5132778
• Journal Information: Water Resources Research; (USA), Journal Name: Water Resources Research; (USA) Vol. 25:1; ISSN 0043-1397; ISSN WRERA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020900 -- Petroleum-- Environmental Aspects
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540220 -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (1990-)
540320* -- Environment
Aquatic-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (1990-)
COMPUTER CODES
ENERGY SOURCES
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
FINITE DIFFERENCE METHOD
FLUID FLOW
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
ITERATIVE METHODS
MASS TRANSFER
MULTIPHASE FLOW
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
PETROLEUM
POLLUTION
SOILS
TESTING
VALIDATION
WATER POLLUTION