A CFD Model to Evaluate Near-Surface Oil Spill from a Broken Loading Pipe in Shallow Coastal Waters

Oil spills continue to generate various issues and concerns regarding their effect and behavior in the marine environment, owing to the related potential for detrimental environmental, economic and social implications. It is essential to have a solid understanding of the ways in which oil interacts with the water and the coastal ecosystems that are located nearby. This study proposes a simplified model for predicting the plume-like transport behavior of heavy Bunker C fuel oil discharging downward from an acutely-angled broken pipeline located on the water surface. The results show that the spill overall profile is articulated in three major flow areas. The first, is the source field, i.e., a region near the origin of the initial jet, followed by the intermediate or transport field, namely, the region where the jet oil flow transitions into an underwater oil plume flow and starts to move horizontally, and finally, the far-field, where the oil re-surface and spreads onto the shore at a significant distance from the spill site. The behavior of the oil in the intermediate field is investigated using a simplified injection-type oil spill model capable of mimicking the undersea trapping and lateral migration of an oil plume originating from a negatively buoyant jet spill. A rectangular domain with proper boundary conditions is used to implement the model. The Projection approach is used to discretize a modified version of the Navier-Stokes equations in two dimensions. A benchmark fluid flow issue is used to verify the model and the results indicate a reasonable relationship between specific gravity and depth as well as agreement with the aerial data and a vertical temperature profile plot.