Numerical Simulation of Crude Oil Dispersion in Water

Abstract

Dispersion is one of the fate processes of oil spill. This research has been carried out on the numerical simulation of the dispersion of crude oil using the model obtained from the work of Hamam (1987). The model was solved with the explicit, implicit and Crank-Nicolson methods of solution of partial differentiation equations with the aid of MATLAB, and the concentration of the crude oil dispersed in water was obtained. The results obtained revealed that the three methods could be used to study the process because the profiles given by all of them were very similar. Also discovered from the investigations carried out was that the concentration of crude oil was decreasing with time for a particular spatial point while, for a particular time, it was increasing along the length of the water body. It was also discovered that experiments would be very necessary in order for the validation of the results obtained from the simulations.