Author(s): Lakshitha T. Premathilake; Poojitha D. Yapa
Linked Author(s):
Keywords: Oil spreading models; Oil in ice; SPH
Abstract: Oil exploration and transport in the Arctic region has increased over the last few decades. The possibility of opening more Arctic navigation routes due to ice melting caused by climate changes have added more oil related activities in ice covered areas. Considering that ship navigation in ice covered regions carries high risk of an accident and the added presence of ice breakers, the concern for a possible oil leak in the ice covered areas is more heightened today. A main tool for mitigation efforts is to have a good model that can predict/simulate the behavior of oil when spilled in ice covered waters. Despite the importance placed on the topic, the work on modeling remained limited in nature. Limited previous modeling work is not sufficient to provide effective modeling support for the impact assessment or contingency planning. This paper is an attempt to develop a model from the ground up that can be expanded to cover more complex cases. In this work, smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH) is selected as the approach to model oil spreading behavior in ice covered conditions. SPH is a fully Lagrangian method which allows modeling the complex processes between oil, ice, and water phases conveniently. SPH has never been used to model oil in ice. In this paper, we present a model developed based on SPH and the comparisons of model results with experimental data.
Year: 2016