The explosion of the BP oil rig Deepwater Horizon off the coast of Lousiana (USA) in April 2010, caused one of the most severe oil spills in history. However, the impact of this ecological catastrophe on the gulf ecosystem as well as the physical, chemical and biological processes which determine the distribution, composition, degradation and faith of the spilled hydrocarbons has yet not been investigated in detail. C-IMAGE is a research consortium from 19 national and international universities with the objective to address these questions.

Objectives

● to improve the observational and predictive tools available
● to better understand the DWH event in hindsight
● to predict the consequences of another deep-sea blow out in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) or elsewhere

Approach

• Development of experimental setups for the analysis of oil spill scenarios under artificial deep sea conditions
• Determination of bubble/droplet rise velocities with respect to temperature and pressure
• Determination of bubble/droplet distributions for oil and methane with respect to temperature and pressure
• Generation and analysis of a scaled multiphase jet with similar flow characteristics as the DWH oil spill
• Confirmation of the methane hydrate generation at the DWH oil spill conditions

Project management: Prof. Dr.-Ing. D. Krause

Project execution: Karen Malone, M.Sc. 

Contact: Karen Malone, M.Sc.

C-IMAGE webpage (external link)

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Project poster