title: Oil droplets transport due to irregular waves: Development of large-scale spreading coefficients.
abstract: The movement of oil droplets due to waves and buoyancy was investigated by assuming an irregular sea state following a JONSWAP spectrum and four buoyancy values. A technique known as Wheeler stretching was used to model the movement of particles under the moving water surface. In each simulation, 500 particles were released and were tracked for a real time of 4.0 h. A Monte Carlo approach was used to obtain ensemble properties. It was found that small eddy diffusivities that decrease rapidly with depth generated the largest horizontal spreading of the plume. It was also found that large eddy diffusivities that decrease slowly with depth generated the smallest horizontal spreading coefficient of the plume. The increase in buoyancy resulted in a decrease in the horizontal spreading coefficient, which suggests that two-dimensional (horizontal) models that predict the transport of surface oil could be overestimating the spreading of oil.
authors.affiliation: Center for Natural Resources Development and Protection, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ 07102, United States.
authors.forename: Xiaolong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Geng
authors.affiliation: Center for Natural Resources Development and Protection, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ 07102, United States. Electronic address: boufadel@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Michel C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Boufadel
authors.affiliation: Department of Ocean Sciences, University of Miami, Miami, FL 33149, United States.
authors.forename: Tamay
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ozgokmen
authors.affiliation: Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Dartmouth, NS B2Y 4A2, Canada.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: King
authors.affiliation: Flagship of Wealth from Oceans, Commonwealth Scientific and Industry Research Organization (CSIRO), Perth, WA 6151, Australia.
authors.forename: Kenneth
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Dartmouth, NS B2Y 4A2, Canada.
authors.forename: Youyu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Center for Natural Resources Development and Protection, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ 07102, United States.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhao
mesh_terms: D008956:Models, Chemical; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D010578:Petroleum / Q000032:analysis*; D014872:Water Movements; D014873:Water Pollutants / Q000032:analysis; D014877:Water Pollution, Chemical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
chemical_list: D010578:Petroleum; D014873:Water Pollutants
keywords: Buoyancy; Eddy diffusivity; Irregular waves; JONSWAP; Oil spill model; Particle tracking