A multi-phase SPH simulation of oil spill diffusion in seawater currents

In case of oil spills due to disasters, one of the main environmental concerns is the oil trajectory and, consequently, its spatial distribution. In the present study, two-dimensional (2D) smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) multi-phase simulations of submarine oil spills give a better insight into the process of oil diffusion in water. The study focuses on the main characteristics of the flow induced by jets discharged either in still water or transversally into flowing currents characterized by different current velocities. Furthermore, the influence of the oil leaking rate is studied. After validation of the SPH numerical model through the comparison with experimental data, an analysis of the effects of the main physical parameters of the flow is performed. The simulation results indicate that the current velocity is the flow quantity that most influences the migration of the oil spilling.