Oil Spill Trajectory: A Comparison Between 2D and 3D Models

Oil Spill Environmental Forensics, 2007

In 2011, an oil spill occurred off Lach Huyen port in the Northeast of Vietnam, due to vessels collision. The results of collision caused pollution on wide area and surrounding areas. This paper was used MIKE 21 SA model to simulate oil spill transport with five scenarios. The results of simulation showed that spill trajectory and slick area depend on analysis hydraulic regime, wind direction and wave in the study area. This paper presents the model application for simulation spill scenarios. It helps in selecting eco-sensitive regions for preparedness and planning suitable response strategies whenever spill incident occurred.

Environmental Processes, 2015

Oil spill models are used worldwide to provide preventive measures in assessing risks of actual and potential damage to natural resources from spills, and also in assisting coastal facilities and local authorities in their strategic development of oil spill mitigation planning and response. Numerous oil spill simulation models exist in the bibliography. They vary in complexity, applicability to location and ease of use. A synoptic presentation of the types of oil slick models internationally applied in operational mode is done, focusing on the model developed by Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The current study elaborates on that oil slick numerical model which simulates the transport and weathering (due to a number of physicochemical processes evolving with time) of an oil spill that accidentally occurred in a coastal area, coupled with a 3D hydrodynamic model. The model is applied in a semi-confined water body, namely Thermaikos Gulf, in N. Greece, which contains the Port of Thessaloniki, a potential source of accidentally spilled oil. Findings of the present study highlight the existing experience on the subject and denote the applicability of such models in either tracing the source of a spill or in predicting its path and spread, thus proving their value in real-time crisis management.

The aim of this paper is to present a mathematical model and its numerical treatment to forecast oil spills trajectories in the sea. The knowledge of the trajectory followed by an oil slick spilled on the sea is of fundamental importance in the estimation of potential risks for pipeline and tankers route selection, and in combating the pollution using floating barriers, detergents, etc. In order to estimate these slicks trajectories a new model, based on the mass and momentum conservation equations is presented. The model considers the spreading in the regimes when the inertial and viscous forces counterbalance gravity and takes into account the effects of winds and water currents. The inertial forces are considered for the spreading and the displacement of the oil slick, i.e., is considered its effects on the movement of the mass center of the slick. The mass loss caused by oil evaporation is also taken into account. The numerical model is developed in generalized coordinates, maki...

wseas.us

Oil tanker accidents in seas cause serious problems to marine environment, especially when these accidents occur close to coastlines. To minimize the impact of tanker accidents on marine environment some measures might be taken if oil slick movement could be ...

IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing

A simplistic mathematical model based on the law of motion for predicting oil spill trajectory on the ocean surface utilizing random walk technique is proposed in this article. Validation of the proposed model is performed by comparing results with the General NOAA Operational Modeling Environment model and the available set of periodic Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images of the contingency location (Corsica oil spill incident in the Mediterranean Sea). SAR images are processed for speckle noise removal, dark spot detection, feature extraction, and classification of dark spots as oil spills and look-alikes for suitability of comparison. The accuracy of prediction is evaluated using centroid skill score metric and is compared with that of the prediction results from MEDSLIK-II model. The results of proposed model are found to be in good agreement with available SAR images. The simulation also showed that using an hourly wind and ocean current data on the study region, more accurate prediction of the trajectory is possible. Index Terms-Centroid skill score (CSS), ocean wind and current, oil spill, random walk procedure, synthetic aperture radar (SAR), trajectory prediction.

Journal of Marine Science and Engineering

Several oil spill simulation models exist in the literature, which are used worldwide to simulate the evolution of an oil slick created from marine traffic, petroleum production, or other sources. These models may range from simple parametric calculations to advanced, new-generation, operational, three-dimensional numerical models, coupled to meteorological, hydrodynamic, and wave models, forecasting in high-resolution and with high precision the transport and fate of oil. This study presents a review of the transport and oil weathering processes and their parameterization and critically examines eighteen state-of-the-art oil spill models in terms of their capacity (a) to simulate these processes, (b) to consider oil released from surface or submerged sources, (c) to assimilate real-time field data for model initiation and forcing, and (d) to assess uncertainty in the produced predictions. Based on our review, the most common oil weathering processes involved are spreading, advectio...

Oil and Chemical Pollution, 1988

A state-of-the-art review of numerical oil spill trajecwry and fate modeling is presented to include advection, spreading, evaporation, dissolution, dispersion, emulsification, biodegradation and sedimentation. This paper represents an update of earlier reviews by Stolzenbach et al, (1977), Huang & Monastero (1982), and Huang (1983) and hence concentrates on recent advances. Particular attention is focused on the dispersion of oil from the sea surface and its influence on spreading, the role of environmental data (currents, wind, temperature, ice conditions) used as input to the model, and the interaction of oil with a variety of shoreline types. Consideration is also given to oil behavior in Arctic environments where oil-ice interactions are important. Brief discussions of the linking of oil spill models with other models to assess environmental impact and the use of oil spill models as the core of an expert system are presented. The review concludes with a list of research needed to advance our ability to model the trajectory and fate o foil and trends in oil spill model development.

Water Pollution XI, 2012

The application of the European Water Framework Directive and the monitoring obligation on water quality for human consumption and industrial activities create a need for water quality evaluation and monitoring systems. The Migr'Hycar research project was initiated to provide decisional tools, and fulfil operational needs, for risks connected to oil spill drifts in continental waters. Within the framework of the Migr'Hycar project, a new 2-D numerical oil spill model has been developed by combining Lagrangian and Eulerian methods. The Lagrangian model describes the transport of an oil spill near the surface. This model simulates the major processes acting on the spilled oil. Though generally considered as a minor process, dissolution is important from the point of view of toxicity. To model dissolved oil in water, a Eulerian advectiondiffusion model is used. The fraction of dissolved oil is represented by a passive Eulerian scalar and its quantity directly depends on the dissolved mass of particles. In parallel with model development, experiments on the behaviour of hydrocarbons have been carried out in an artificial river facility in Berlin, which is part of the German federal environment agency (UBA). After spilling refined commercial products into an artificial channel, the aim of these experiments was to study the drift of the oil spill and the dissolution in the water column. Experimental results on situations with controlled conditions will allow the quality of the numerical predictions to be confirmed and validated.

Oil and Chemical Pollution, 1989

Oil spill trajectory and fates models typically follow a surface s~ck until it contacts a coastline, at which time the simulation ceases. The coastal zone oil spill (COZOIL) model described here is designed to simulate oil spill fates both before and after a coastal contact. Multiple discrete batches of oil (spillets) are used to represent the surface slick. Spillets are circular while offshore but become elliptical upon contact with the shoreline. Onshoreoffshore foreshortening is governed by a balance between wind stress and gravity spreading forces, and results in alongshore spreading of the spillet. Evaporated hydrocarbons are accumulated from all sources during the simulation, with no spatial representation. Entrained oil offshore is represented by discrete particles which may be advected by the local currents. Inside the surf zone, entrained oil takes on a continuous representation, discretized within individual alongshore grid cells. Transport in the sulf zone is governed by a classical radiation stress formulation. Incorporation of water into surface oil (emulsification) is simulated offshore. De-emulsification (de-watering) is allowed to occur for oil which is on the foreshore or backshore. Oil coming ashore may be deposited on the foreshore or the backshore, or carried into coastal indentations

Ocean Engineering, 2008

This study extends previous two-dimensional research . Two-dimensional numerical simulation for transport and fate of oil spills in seas. Ocean Engineering 32, 1556-1571] to three dimensions in order to investigate the vertical dispersion/motion of the spilled oil slick, which is a more realistic model of the motion of the spilled oil. To this end, a threedimensional (3-D) model, based on the particle approach, is developed for simulating oil spill transport and fate in seas. The amount of oil released at sea is distributed among a large number of particles tracked individually. These particles are driven by a combination of water current, wave-and wind-induced speed and move in a 3-D space. Horizontal and vertical diffusion are taken into account using a random walk technique. The model simulates the most significant processes which affect the motion of oil particles, such as advection, surface spreading, evaporation, dissolution, emulsification, turbulent diffusion, the interaction of the oil particles with the shoreline, sedimentation and the temporal variations of oil viscosity, density and surface tension. In addition, the processes of hydrolysis, photooxidation and biodegradation are also considered in this model. The model has been applied to simulate the oil spill accident in the Bohai Sea. r