Oil Spill Models: A State of the Art of the Grid Map as a Function of Wind, Current and Oil Parameters

An integrated model, which contains flow and transport-fate modules, will be presented for simulating transport and fate of oil spills at seas. The flow module uses different kinds of meshes that provide great flexibility for modeling the flow in complex geometries of currents and barriers. The refined grid resolution in regions of interest is important. Horizontal diffusion is simulated using random walk techniques in a Monte Carlo framework, whereas the vertical diffusion process can be solved on the basis of the Langeven equation. The model contains the most significant processes which affect the motion of oil particles. For a better fit to the curvature of the coastline there are used unstructured non overlapping rectangular or triangle grid cells. Special attention must be paid to choose the horizontal and vertical resolution in simulating the oil trajectory in the coastal area.