1stWORKSHOP Oil spill containment Booms, 2/3 Mars 2006, La Rochelle France
Real problems to motivate industrial and scientific approaches
Challenge
The power of interdisciplinary discussions from different points of view provides a challenging way to improve knowledge in oil boom contingency planning. Academic researchers, industry, and the users can all collaborate in this activity.
Knowledge
Reinforced research activities can lead to dissemination exchanges on best practices, showing industrial ways and means, whether focussing on the shore area, or in the open sea, or both together.. According to John Ockendon from OxfordUniversity, more still needs to be done to boost scientific advances through cooperation with scientific societies,such as SMAIin France.
Innovation
Several speakers at the workshop pointed out that the innovations in booms which the Simbar project has fostered need to be tested in real conditions. As a consequence, research validation on booms requires the involvement of the authorities and their expertise on best practices, such as those of CEPPOL and CETMEF in France. John Hinch fromthe University of Cambridge took up the theme of more exchange between industry and science, and the need to validate new boom materials and innovative oil retention media.Clément Buvatfrom Laboratoire National Hydrauliqueet Environnement (EDF) made clear in his speech that numerical computation comparisons with laboratory experiments are an essential issue in oil and water hydrodynamics around booms.
Dissemination
A key aspect of the discussion is that progress in boomconception and utilisation depends not only on financial support of authorities, but also on the dissemination of basic scientific research results at an international level. This workshop experience on oil-spill booms proves beyond doubt that funding of new equipment must be done at different levels (national/international, public/private).
Selecting ideas
One important part of this workshop is developing the study of new ideas for reinforcing boom performance. This is a part of a system which contains a high number of constraints, and concerns the economy of coastal areas, and local power plants.The French Navy, CEPPOL can provide personnel, vessels and equipment to achieve pilot exercises addressing the testing of our new boom concepts.
Complexity
As expressed by several speakers from CEDRE, CETMEF, CEPPOL, the sea conditionsin the North Sea, Atlantic, Mediterranean Sea, can be very different. We must do research respecting these high variations, which affect boom design and boom usage, both for oil contingency and oil recovery.
Industrial response
The boom manufacturers ZODIAC and RO-CLEAN pointed out their knowledge on oil-boom materials and other equipment, and comparisons between the scientific modelling of boom contingency planning and observations in real conditions.The FOST response team from theTOTAL emphasised the necessity for the training of response teams for oil-spill emergency situations, using boom equipment.
The mechanical response of booms depends on hypotheses of oil viscosity and oil density, and can be extended to model net material (boom+net),and oil skimmers. (boom arm+skimmer). Boom cleaning and recovery operation safety are important too.
Scientific response
The main physical properties of oil as pointed out by CEDRE were viscosity, density, surface tension, and the possibility of oil emulsification. Many numerical methods can be applied to study both the hydrodynamic and the structural responses of boom, in the presence of sea currents, waves and wind, on the shore, or in the high sea, anchorage on sea bed, or tow by vessels.
Of equally great interest is the knowledge of the shape of the under-sea oil water interface wave,which is crucial to boom performance in any contingency.
The Simbar project has provided a first response on that issue using in parallel two methods; “Smoothed Particles hydrodynamics” for the flow, and the “membrane finite-element” for the structure.
Modelling is also continuing on the computation of the boom contingency planning, which can give the optimal boom angles with the sea current and prediction of boom stress. It is also difficult to compute boom contingency planning in shallow water conditions and boom grounding may result from the tides.