Investigation of the effectiveness of tandem oil fences under currents

Abstract

The behavior of the flow passing a tandem oil fence, and the performance of the fence, were investigated by experimental and numerical methods. The flow characteristics between tandem fences were measured by the particle image velocimetry (PIV) method for the rigid and open free surface between the two fences in order to gather reference data for numerical investigations. A method of assessing a tandem fence by tracing the movement of an oil droplet around the fence is introduced. The effect of the current speed, the separation distance between the two fences, the relative draft of the two fences, and the water depth on the oil containment between the fences was investigated.