Engineering Commons^™

Influence Of Bulk And Surface Interactions From Thick, Porous, Soil-Based Substrates On The Spreading Behavior Of Different Viscosity Oils, Firoz Ahmed, Brenda Hutton-Prager

Faculty and Student Publications

Crude oils and motor oils are commonly identified in oil spills on land. Controlling and understanding their flow both across and into land is of paramount importance to minimize spread and subsequent damage to the ecosystem. Spreading kinetics and surface energy studies were conducted with these oils over several realistic soil-based matrixes, consisting of topsoil (silt-dominant), sand, clay, and moisture. Spreading area through a 1.3 cm deep matrix was reduced with increased moisture content, densely packed matrixes, and higher viscosity oils. Initial contact angle (CA) measurements for all oils was typically lower on clay matrixes due to its sheet-like structure …