Abstract
We introduce a model for the dynamics of oil in suspension, appropriate for shallow waters, including the nearshore environment. This model is capable of oil mass conservation and does so by evolving the oil on the sea surface as well as the oil in the subsurface. The shallower portion of the continental shelf poses compounding unique modeling challenges. Many of these relate to the complex nature of advection and dispersion of oil in an environment in which wind, waves, as well as currents all play a role, as does the complex bathymetry and the nearshore geography. In this study we present an overview of the model as well as derive the most fundamental of processes, namely, the shallow water advectiion and dispersion processes. With regard to this basic transport, we superate several fundamental challenges associated with creating a transport model for oil and other buoyant pollutants, capable of capturing the dynamics at the large spatio-temporal scales demanded by environmental and hazard mitigation studies. Some of the strategies are related to dimension reduction and upscaling, and leave discussion of these to companion papers. Here we focus on wave-filtering, ensemble and depth-averaging. Integral to the model is the proposal of an ocean dynamics model that is consistent with the transport. This ocean dynamics model is detailed here. The ocean/oil transport model is applied to a couple of physically-inspired oil-spill problems in demonstrate its specialized capabilities.
Highlights
The 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, precipitated by a malfunction and an ensuing explosion in the Deepwater Horizon platform prompted several ocean/pollution modeling and simulation groups to exercise their computational platform capabilities
We report on the development of a mass conservation oil model, developed for shallow water conditions
The long term goal is to produce a circulation model that captures oil spill dynamics in the shallower regions of the continental shelf, and the nearshore, at the very large spatio-temporal scales required of environmental studies
Summary
The 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, precipitated by a malfunction and an ensuing explosion in the Deepwater Horizon platform prompted several ocean/pollution modeling and simulation groups to exercise their computational platform capabilities. A generation hydrocarbon fate model is highly desirable; one that is capable of simulating accurately oil spills of the magnitude and complexity of the Deep-Water Horizon event This would be a model with a vast spatio-temporal range: capable of resolving horizontal scales in the order of tens of meters to hundreds of kilometers, and time scales from tens of seconds to seasons. (1) many oil models do not conserve oil mass (models that can faithfully account for subsurface and surface oil over large spatio-temporal scales). The long term goal is to produce a circulation model that captures oil spill dynamics in the shallower regions of the continental shelf, and the nearshore, at the very large spatio-temporal scales required of environmental studies.
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