139
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
S. A. Murawski et al. (eds.), Deep Oil Spills,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11605-7_9
Chapter 9
Dynamic Coupling of Near-Field
and Far- Field Models
Ana C. Vaz, Claire B. Paris, Anusha L. Dissanayake,
Scott A. Socolofsky, Jonas Gros, and Michel C. Boufadel
Abstract Deepwater spills pose a unique challenge for reliable predictions of oil
transport and fate, since live oil spewing under very high hydrostatic pressure has
characteristics remarkably distinct from oil spilling in shallow water. It is thus
important to describe in detail the complex thermodynamic processes occurring in
the near-field, meters above the wellhead, and the hydrodynamic processes in the
far-field, up to kilometers away. However, these processes are typically modeled
separately since they occur at different scales. Here we directly couple two oil prediction applications developed during the Deepwater Horizon blowout operating at
different scales: the near-field Texas A&M Oilspill Calculator (TAMOC) and the
far-field oil application of the Connectivity Modeling System (oil-CMS). To achieve
this coupling, new oil-CMS modules were developed to read TAMOC output, which
consists of the description of distinct oil droplet “types,” each of specific size and
pseudo-component mixture that enters at a given mass flow rate, time, and position
into the far field. These variables are transformed for use in the individual-based
framework of CMS, where each droplet type fits into a droplet size distribution
(DSD). Here we used 19 pseudo-components representing a large range of hydrocarbon compounds and their respective thermodynamic properties. Simulation
A. C. Vaz (*) · C. B. Paris
University of Miami, Department of Ocean Sciences, RSMAS, Miami, FL, USA
e-mail: avaz@rsmas.miami.edu; cparis@rsmas.miami.edu
A. L. Dissanayake
RPS Group North America, Ocean Sciences, South Kingstown, RI, USA
e-mail: Anusha.Dissanayake@rpsgroup.com
S. A. Socolofsky
Texas A&M University, Department of Ocean Sciences, College Station, TX, USA
e-mail: socolofs@tamu.edu
J. Gros
GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Kiel, Germany
e-mail: jogros@geomar.de
M. C. Boufadel
The New Jersey Institute of Technology, John A. Reif, Jr. Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering, Newark, NJ, USA
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
S. A. Murawski et al. (eds.), Deep Oil Spills,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11605-7_9
Chapter 9
Dynamic Coupling of Near-Field
and Far- Field Models
Ana C. Vaz, Claire B. Paris, Anusha L. Dissanayake,
Scott A. Socolofsky, Jonas Gros, and Michel C. Boufadel
Abstract Deepwater spills pose a unique challenge for reliable predictions of oil
transport and fate, since live oil spewing under very high hydrostatic pressure has
characteristics remarkably distinct from oil spilling in shallow water. It is thus
important to describe in detail the complex thermodynamic processes occurring in
the near-field, meters above the wellhead, and the hydrodynamic processes in the
far-field, up to kilometers away. However, these processes are typically modeled
separately since they occur at different scales. Here we directly couple two oil prediction applications developed during the Deepwater Horizon blowout operating at
different scales: the near-field Texas A&M Oilspill Calculator (TAMOC) and the
far-field oil application of the Connectivity Modeling System (oil-CMS). To achieve
this coupling, new oil-CMS modules were developed to read TAMOC output, which
consists of the description of distinct oil droplet “types,” each of specific size and
pseudo-component mixture that enters at a given mass flow rate, time, and position
into the far field. These variables are transformed for use in the individual-based
framework of CMS, where each droplet type fits into a droplet size distribution
(DSD). Here we used 19 pseudo-components representing a large range of hydrocarbon compounds and their respective thermodynamic properties. Simulation
A. C. Vaz (*) · C. B. Paris
University of Miami, Department of Ocean Sciences, RSMAS, Miami, FL, USA
e-mail: avaz@rsmas.miami.edu; cparis@rsmas.miami.edu
A. L. Dissanayake
RPS Group North America, Ocean Sciences, South Kingstown, RI, USA
e-mail: Anusha.Dissanayake@rpsgroup.com
S. A. Socolofsky
Texas A&M University, Department of Ocean Sciences, College Station, TX, USA
e-mail: socolofs@tamu.edu
J. Gros
GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Kiel, Germany
e-mail: jogros@geomar.de
M. C. Boufadel
The New Jersey Institute of Technology, John A. Reif, Jr. Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering, Newark, NJ, USA