Evaluation of oil pollution dispersion in an unsaturated sandy soil environment

Abstract

The current study assesses critical condition of oil dispassion, considering the unsaturated soil condition dispersity behavior for oil dispersion. The numerical model is used as a finite element method to model the oil spill pollution with two different saturated and unsaturated soil conditions chosen and their pollution dispersion results compared. Extracted results from numerical model show that considering the form of unsaturated soil, by changing the matric suction its soil conductivity ratio will differ. Regarding the current study analysis, it has been observed that the pattern of oil dispersion in case of unsaturated soil can be changed, in comparison to saturated soil condition. The vertical penetration of oil pollution in both cases of saturated and unsaturated soil condition will be more than horizontal dispersion pollution speed. As for oil pollution control in soil domain, the condition of unsaturated soil may be controllable, compared to the saturated one. Extracted results show that oil dispersion velocity, considering saturated soil, is more than 10 times greater than unsaturated one.