Experimental study on containment of moderate-viscous oil by floating boom subject to waves and currents

• Published in: Applied ocean research Vol. 94; p. 102003
• Main Authors: Shi, Yang, Wei, Jiahua, Li, Shaowu, Peng, Shitao, Zhang, Bangwen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Barking Elsevier Ltd 01.01.2020; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Containment; Emergency preparedness; Experimental study; Failure mechanism; Floating; Floating boom; Hydrodynamic performance; Moderate-viscous oil; Oil spills; Viscosity; Failure mechanism; Experimental study; Hydrodynamic performance; Floating boom; Moderate-viscous oil
• ISSN: 0141-1187; 1879-1549
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apor.2019.102003

It is necessary to comprehensively understand the hydro-dynamic behavior of spilled oil contained by the floating oil boom, especially for emergency response after an oil spill accident. In the present study, the profile evolution process and principal containment failure mechanism of moderate-viscous oil in wave-current coupling condition are experimentally investigated by considering the effects of the oil viscosity and the spilled volume as well as the boom characteristics of material stiffness, skirt length and buoyancy-weight ratio. A series of empirical formulae in terms of slick length, peak thickness as well vortex scale near the boom, initial failure velocity and loss rate of spilled oil considering the oil properties, the spilled volumes and boom characteristics are proposed using a non-linear global stepwise regression method, namely evolutionary polynomial regression technique with multi-objective genetic algorithm. In addition, protective measures are proposed to reduce the loss of oil spill.