Abstract
Abstract 2017-184: Accidental release of pollutants such as offshore oil spills can cause significant negative impacts on the environment and socio-economy, and constitutes a direct hazard to marine life and human health. Particularly, deepwater blowout released spills are more challenging to study because the trajectory and behaviour of oil are difficult to be comprehensively simulated. Although there are many integrated or coupled models available, there still lacks open source deepwater oil spill models to predict not only the trajectory but also the mass balance of oil. It is the objective of this study to fill this gap by coupling the Texas A&M Oilspill Calculator (TAMOC) for nearfield simulation and the advanced oil spill module in the Modelo Hidrodinâmico (MOHID) 3D Water modeling system. In addition, the Weber number scaling approach is also integrated in both the near- and far-field simulation for oil droplet size prediction. The applicability of the proposed comprehensive system is tested by a case study of simulation of oil spills released from a depth of 3,500 m in the Scotian Shelf, Canada. The results demonstrate a high feasibility of the proposed system. By providing comprehensive simulation for oil spills, the developed system should provide significant support to the response to offshore oil spill, especially from deepwater blowout.
Published Version
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