Modeling accidental oil outflows from shipping accidents

The overall aim of the research is to develop a decision support system to quickly estimate the oil outflow from a damaged tanker in a collision or grounding accident, in Arctic conditions. The work in this Mitacs project focuses on a part of this overall objective: modeling the dynamic oil outflow from a damaged tanker. Representative tankers operating in the Canadian Arctic, damaged in a collision or grounding accident, are in focus. The effect of wave conditions and cold climate effects on the viscosity of the oil are considered. First, a detailed Computational Fluid Dynamics model is set up and runs are made for a range of impact scenarios, which can account for external wave dynamics and a range of oil viscosities. This results in a number of time sequences of the volume of oil flowing out from a damaged tanker. Then, a simplified model is developed based on those model results, which can run fast. Ultimately, this model will be linked to a structural damage model for collision and grounding accidents in Arctic conditions, and integrated in a decision support system for oil pollution preparedness and response authorities.

Faculty Supervisor:

Floris Goerlandt

Student:

Partner:

Aalto University

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Ocean Tech; Clean Technology; Oil and Gas

University:

Dalhousie University

Program: