Numerical Study of Leakage and Diffusion of Underwater Oil Spill by Using Volume-of-Fluid (VOF) Technique and Remediation Strategies for Clean-Up

Abstract

An oil spill accident will cause serious harm to marine ecology and the environment. Rapid response and effective prevention methods are required to minimize the damage of oil spill accidents. The critical problems that marine emergency rescue teams face are when the spilled oil reaches the sea surface, the extent of the spilled oil, and how far they are from the drilling platform. However, there is no reliable model to predict the diffusion distance of spilled oil. Accurately predicting the diffusion characteristics of underwater spilled oil can provide timely and accurate information for the treatment of oil spill accidents and guide the correct implementation of emergency treatment. In this paper, the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method was used to establish a two-phase flow model for the diffusion of a submarine oil spill. The volume-of-fluid (VOF) technique was implemented to track the interface between oil–water phases. The effects of different parameters on leakage and diffusion characteristics were investigated by adjusting spilled oil velocity, ocean current velocity, crude oil density, and crude oil viscosity. The logarithmic velocity profile was adopted for ocean currents to conform to the actual flow near the sea surface. A user-defined function (UDF) was developed and applied for CFD modeling. The focus was on analyzing the diffusion range (rising height Hp and lateral migration distance Wp) from full-field data. The results indicate that the oil spill velocity, ocean current velocity, crude oil density, and crude oil viscosity impact the viscous shear force, the oil spill’s inertia force, and the current shear effect. The formula for calculating the lateral migration distance of spilled oil under different working conditions was obtained by fitting. The results of this study can provide a scientific basis for formulating an emergency treatment plan for offshore oil spill accidents and minimizing the harm to marine ecology and the environment.