Identification of ground spilled oil of buried pipeline based on laser absorption spectroscopy: Numerical investigation and experimental verification

Abstract

The ground diffusion characteristics of buried oil pipeline after leakage and the laser optical transmission mechanism of surface oil film are the basis of spectral detection technology. Based on the computational fluid dynamics to solve the diffusion equation of multiphase flow in porous media, the leakage law of oil under different soil porosity is analyzed in two dimensions: surface diffusion diameter and oil film thickness. TracePro optical simulation is used to study the absorption and reflection patterns of laser at the oil-gas interface, and validation experiments are carried out based on the tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy method. The results show that oil is easily accumulated on the ground surface with larger soil porosity and in the depressions of the ground surface. When the oil film thickness is greater than 2 mm, the laser cannot transmit the oil layer and the received light intensity is only provided by the mirror reflection at the oil-gas interface. The mechanism of laser detection of oil leaks is the spectral absorption of volatile alkane gases in the upper layer of the oil film by a laser of a specific wavelength.

Keywords

• Oil leakage and diffusion
• Numerical simulation
• Laser absorption spectroscopy
• Optical path transmission