Accidental burning of a fuel layer on a waterbed: a scale analysis of the models predicting the pre-boilover time and tests to published data

Abstract

The paper concerns the heat transfer models of liquid fuel bed burning on water sublayer. The main efforts are stressed on the qualitative assessment of models available and their adequacy as well as on the prediction of the boilover onset. The analysis employed various data obtained by different research groups. The evaluation of the suitable functional relationships predicting the pre-boilover time was done based on dimensionless groups derived from two types of models published in the literature: Surface Absorption Models and In-Depth Absorption Models.

Importance of the slick thickness for effective in-situ burning of crude oil

“…While heat transfer models have been used to accommodate for oil-water interface interactions (e.g. [27,28]), the uncertainties remained significant. The COFA setup was verified against large scale field experiment data from Brandvik et al [15].…”

Thermal Properties and Burning Efficiencies of Crude Oils and Refined Fuel Oil

“…Initial tests used a solid metal sample holder without heat sinks, leading to a hot surrounding of the burning oil, which resulted in unrepresentative results compared to experimental in-situ burning results on water. Previous studies have used heat transfer models to simulate the oil-water interactions (Garo et al, 1999;2017-153 2017 INTERNATIONAL OIL SPILL CONFERENCE 4 Hristov et al, 2004), but the uncertainties in the experimental data remained significant. The oil samples were therefore continuously cooled by water (12 °C) with a flow of 7 L/h to create a heat sink that simulates the heat losses observed during in-situ burning of oil on water (Brzustowski and Twardus, 1982;Buist et al, 1999).…”

A new Experimental Rig for Oil Burning on Water – Results for Crude and Pure Oils

“…Also, the fraction of heat fed back to the fuel surface is a very important parameter, however it is also the most difficult parameter to determine and scale. Models that consider more parameters exists and are discussed by Hristov et al [19]. However, these models generally do not solve the problem, as they show similar trends and further complications that necessitate additional research in developing effective experimental bench scale tests to extract realistic fuel/fire properties that are scalable.…”

“…not surrounding the pan. This experimental difficulty was to some extent overcome by the development of models to represent the heat transfer mechanisms between the oil-water interface [12,13,[17][18][19]. However, there are still significant uncertainties associated with the value of parameters obtained using bench scale tests and their interpretation/extrapolation to application of in-situ burning in the open seas.…”