Transportation of Multiple Grades of Crude Oil on Tankers: Understanding the Risk of Tank Overflow

• Autores: Nikolaos Adamopoulos
• Localización: Journal of maritime research: JMR, ISSN 1697-4840, Vol. 16, Nº. 1, 2019, págs. 94-102
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The possibility of oil spill from a crude oil tanker without any human intervention is analyzed. The spillcan occur due to the communication of tanks containing dissimilar grades of crude oil. It will be shownthat the difference in the densities of two or more grades of crude oil is possible to cause the over-fillof a tank and can raise the level to a significant height, finally leading to over flow through a purgingdevice fitted on the top of the tank. The case is analyzed also in terms of the time needed for suchover-fill to occur by studying the fluid dynamics of the self-initiated flow between tanks. Measures toprevent possible flow between tanks are presented as well as measures to avoid the spill once the flowis initiated