A laboratory study on the effect of suspended particulate matter concentration on the submerging and sinking process of oil spill

Oil slick and suspended particles in the water can interact to form oil-suspended particulate matter aggregates (OSAs) which will disperse in the water column or sink to the bottom after oil spill events. A laboratory oscillation experiment combined with UV spectrophotometry was performed to investigate the effect of natural sand on the submerging and sinking process of Oman crude oil. Results indicated that the sand obviously accelerated the submerging and sinking process of Oman crude oil under a certain frequency oscillation, Most of the oil suspended in the water column and little interacted with the particles to form OSAs. The oil submerging and sinking efficiency increased rapidly with time and then converged to a maximum. When the concentration increased from 100 to 400 mg/L, the maximum oil submerging and sinking efficiency and speed increased, and the time to equilibrium decreased.