Experimental Investigation of Blowouts, Characterization of Fountain Effect Consequences at the Sea Surface

Abstract : The objective of this work was to quantify the consequences at the water surface of an underwater gas release. In particular the experimental tests were performed in two experimental basins, investigating the effect of gas nature, injection diameter and gaseous mass flow rate. These phenomena can occur in the case of incidents on oil platforms or during leaks from gas pipelines. The main objectives of this study were to measure the water elevation at the water surface (fountain effect) due to rising plume gas in the water column. The results for maximum water elevation clearly show a strong influence of gas flow rate with an increase in elevation with decreasing gas density. The influence on the fountain effect related to the leak diameter was also observed. Furthermore, the study clearly shows that the gas solubilisation in water has an impact on the fountain effect with a strong decrease in the maximum level of water elevation.