3D Oil Spill Model: Application to the “Happy Bride” Accident

Abstract

The application of the European Water Framework Directive and the monitoring obligation on water quality for human consumption and industrial activities create a need for water quality assessment and monitoring systems. The MIGR’Hycar research project (see: http://www.migrhycar.com), partly funded by the French National Agency for Research (ANR), was initiated to provide decisional tools and fulfil operational needs for risks connected to oil spill drifts in continental waters (river, lakes, estuaries). Within the framework of the Migr’Hycar project, a three-dimensional (3D) numerical oil spill model has been developed. A Lagrangian model describes the transport of an oil spill near the free surface. The oil slick is represented by a large set of small particles. The model enables us to simulate the main transport process that acts on the spilled oil: advection (wind, current), diffusion (turbulence) and the shoreline oiling model. In order to validate the 3D 0uary 2006, the tanker “Sigmagas” suffering technical damage collided with another tanker “Happy Bride”. 60 t of heavy fuel has been spilled in Loire estuary because of tanker collision. The oil slick drift in the estuary and the affected area location have been followed with aerial and land observations. These observations allow us to assess the quality of the numerical predictions. Promising results are found and presented in this paper.