Spreading and Retraction of Spilled Crude Oil on Seawater

Sacrificial amphiphiles: Eco-friendly chemical herders as oil spill mitigation chemicals

“…When crude oil spills on the sea surface, it spreads quickly over the surface because interfacial tension forces are not balanced at the three-phase contact line at the edge of the oil slick. Air-seawater tensions (γ A/W ) are typically ~73.5 mN/m (~60 to 65 mN/m if a natural biofilm is present), and this is larger than the sum of the oil-water γ O/W and oil-air γ O/A tensions, which is about 25 mN/m ( 5 , 6 ). As a result, the air-seawater interface pulls on the contact line, causing the oil to spread quickly because the spreading coefficient S = γ A/W − (γ O/W + γ O/A ) is positive.…”

Variance-based sensitivity analysis of oil spill predictions in the Red Sea region

“…Empirical findings have suggested that more-viscous oils spread less than less-viscous oils (Olugbenga et al, 2020), explaining the observed sensitivity of the slick deformation to the oil viscosity. Moreover, the IFT directly influences surface oil spreading, ultimately affecting the shape of the oil slick and how it stretches under the action of surface currents (Winoto et al, 2014;Speight, 2020). These results indicate that uncertainties about the shape of the oil slicks are primarily dependent on the wind coefficient and to a lesser degree on IFT and viscosity, and that the contribution of the remaining parameters is negligible.…”