Abstract

Inland oil spills are environmental accidents that have significant impacts on environmental and ecological health. Inland spill pollution in the soil may pose a particular challenge. To achieve a fast response, the oil transport mode such as infiltration should be well understood. Herein, in this thesis, the comprehensive literature review was firstly conducted to study the cause, transport, and impact of spilled oil, as well as the response techniques for spill incidents. Secondly, the new features of oil penetration were revealed in thawing frozen soil under various weather conditions. The results showed the penetration behavior of spilled oil in the thawing frozen soil and the influence of salinity level. The modified Green-Ampt model could simulate the penetration process well especially with high water content, relatively cold temperature, and slow thawing rate. Thirdly, the infiltration behavior of water-in-oil emulsions and the influencing factors were investigated by assessing the characteristics of different emulsions. The experiment results showed that an increase of water and fine particle content and decrease in temperature would improve the viscosity of emulsions and reduce the infiltration rate, whereas salinity levels had a negligible impact on infiltration if the pour point of emulsion systems was far higher than the freezing point of water droplets. Fourthly, this study indicate that the presence of nettings and plant roots has a considerable impact on the oil infiltration process in various soils. The findings of this study can help improve the emergent response of inland oil spills.