Novel Mathematical Model for Natural Dispersion of Oil Spill on Dyanmic Sea

Abstract Natural dispersion is an important weathering process that controls the transfer of oil from the sea surface into the water column. However, conventional dispersion models have limited capability to represent the combined effects of dynamic wave breaking, whitecap coverage, turbulence, oil properties, and droplet formation. The present study develops an energy-constrained natural-dispersion model in which whitecap coverage defines the dynamically active slick area and a wave-breaking energy-transfer efficiency determines the fraction of turbulent energy available for creation of new oil–water interfacial area. The proposed framework introduces whitecap coverage to represent the dynamically active fraction of the oil slick and an energy-transfer efficiency factor to account for the portion of wave-breaking energy available for droplet generation. The model also explicitly considers the interfacial energy required to create new oil–water surface area and couples turbulent energy dissipation with oil viscosity, interfacial tension, and droplet size. This provides a mechanistic relationship between sea-state forcing, wave breaking, useful dispersion energy, droplet generation, water-column entrainment, and subsequent resurfacing. The proposed approach provides an improved physical representation of natural oil dispersion under variable sea conditions and offers a basis for more realistic prediction of oil behavior during marine spill events.