Laboratory investigation of dodecylbenzene diffusion from submarine cables

Abstract

Oil-filled submarine cables have come to dominate the reliable delivery of electrical power today, but oil leakage still remain a challenge. This work focuses on the exploring of spill behavior of dodecylbenzene (DDB) after leakage and the detection of DDB. Static and dynamic spill model were established to study the spreading and migration behavior of underwater DDB. In still water, the spilled oil droplets can quickly reach the uniform floating speed of 0.13 m s-1 with no significant change under different oil spill rates. DDB can be dispersed as small droplets in seawater, which the diameter of DDB droplets increased from 60 nm to 200 nm with the increase of the concentration from 10 ppm to 1000 ppm. This study suggests a research basis for finding the leakage point of submarine cables, and explores the way for detection of DDB.