Numerical investigations on the oil intercepting performance of area-source pneumatic booms via a coupled DPM and VOF method

Pneumatic booms offer distinct advantages over traditional structural barriers: not affecting the local vessel navigation and hydrological environment, enhanced mobility and maneuverability, etc. However, their oil interception performance remains insufficiently understood especially for the area-source ones. This study employs a well-validated numerical model based on the coupled VOF and DPM framework, to systematically investigate the plume evolution and oil containment efficiency of near-surface area-source bubble curtains under various aquatic scenarios. Numerical simulations reveal that the critical air supplying parameters(air flow rate, supplying pipeline number, pipeline spacing) have obvious influences on the plume development and the oil intercepting performance, and an optimal air supplying configuration can be achieved for low and relatively high airflow rate respectively under quiescent water condition. With the optimal designs, the demanding airflow rates for successful oil containment under different ambient flow velocities and wave parameters are analyzed. These findings highlight the effects of area-source pneumatic booms in oil containment and can provide valuable estimation for oil spill containment in practical engineering.