Oil containment by boom in waves and wind, I: Numerical model

The effectiveness of a boom is associated with the hydrodynamics in the vic inity of the oil slick that it is attempting to contain, especially under o pen-sea conditions. A comprehensive investigation of oil containment is pro vided under various current, wave, and wind conditions. In this paper, a lo cal two-phase nonlinear hydrodynamic numerical model is developed to simula te oil containment by a axed boom under open-sea conditions. The shape of a n oil slick is a function of time, and unstable waves may develop along til e oil-water interfacial boundary. This paper describes a simulation of the behavior of the oil slick and deals with important interfacial boundary con ditions. A nonhydrostatic pressure is introduced to accommodate the complic ated local flow near the oil slick and a successive overrelaxation method i s used to solve the pressure equation. A comparison is made of the oil slic k shape with and without the hydrostatic pressure assumption. Some simple s imulations of free-surface elevations under a number of wave conditions are performed to verify the numerical model. The computed results are in gener al agreement with those obtained from previous experiments.