title: Simulation of scenarios of oil droplet formation from the Deepwater Horizon blowout.
abstract: Knowledge of the droplet size distribution (DSD) from the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) blowout is an important step in predicting the fate and transport of the released oil. Due to the absence of measurements of the DSD from the DWH incident, we considered herein hypothetical scenarios of releases that explore the realistic parameter space using a thoroughly calibrated DSD model, VDROP-J, and we attempted to provide bounds on the range of droplet sizes from the DWH blowout within 200 m of the wellhead. The scenarios include conditions without and with the presence of dispersants, different dispersant treatment efficiencies, live oil and dead oil properties, and varying oil flow rate, gas flow rate, and orifice diameter. The results, especially for dispersant-treated oil, are very different from recent modeling studies in the literature.
authors.affiliation: Center for Natural Resources Development and Protection, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ 07102, USA.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Center for Natural Resources Development and Protection, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ 07102, USA. Electronic address: boufadel@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Michel C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Boufadel
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Adams
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil Engineering, Texas A&M, College Station, TX 77843, USA.
authors.forename: Scott A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Socolofsky
authors.affiliation: Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Dartmouth, Canada.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: King
authors.affiliation: Flagship of Wealth from Oceans, Commonwealth Scientific and Industry Research Organization (CSIRO), Perth, Australia.
authors.forename: Kenneth
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Exxon Upstream Research Company, 22777 Springwood Village Parkway, Spring, Texas 77339, USA.
authors.forename: Timothy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nedwed
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010316:Particle Size; D010578:Petroleum / Q000032:analysis*; D059392:Petroleum Pollution / Q000032:analysis*; D012623:Seawater / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D010578:Petroleum
keywords: Deepwater Horizon; Droplet size distribution; Jets and plumes; Oil spill; Population balance model