Direction of drift of surface oil with wind and tide

The directions of surface oil slicks spreading from the wreck of t.e.v. Wahine during April 1968 are compared with predicted movements of surface water obtained by the vectorial addition of wind‐induced surface currents and tidal currents. Wind factors of 1%, 2%, 3%, 4%, and 5% of recorded surface wind speeds were used to calculate wind‐induced currents which were assumed to be in the same direction as the wind. The observed oil slick movements correspond best with the resultants obtained using a 3–5% wind factor, 60–64% of these falling within ± 20° of the observed directions of the oil slicks.

Possible sources of error in the method are discussed and an example is given to illustrate how the method might be used to predict movements of surface oil resulting from an oil spillage.     

Numerical modeling of hyperpycnal flows in an idealized river mouth

Numerical experiments in an idealized river mouth are conducted using a three-dimensional hydrodynamics model (EFDC model) to examine the impacts of suspended sediment concentration (SSC), settling velocity of sediment and tidal mixing on the formation and maintenance of estuarine hyperpycnal flows. The standard experiment presents an illustrative view of hyperpycnal flows that carry high-concentrated sediment and low-salinity water in the bottom layer (>1.0 m in thickness) along the subaqueous slope. The structure and intra-tidal variation of the simulated hyperpycnal flows are quite similar to those previously observed off the Huanghe (Yellow River) mouth. Results from the three control experiments show that SSC of river effluents is the most important parameter to the formation of hyperpycnal flows. High SSC will increase the bulk density of river effluents and thus offset the density difference between freshwater and seawater. Low SSC of river effluents will produce a surface river plume, as commonly observed in most large estuaries. Both the settling velocity of sediment particles and the tidal mixing play an important role in maintaining the hyperpycnal flows. Increasing settling velocity enhances the deposition of sediment from the hyperpycnal layer and thus accelerates the attenuation of hyperpycnal flows, whereas increasing tidal mixing destroys the stratification of water column and therefore makes the hyperpycnal flows less evident. Our results from numerical experiments are of importance to understand the initiation and maintenance of hyperpycnal flows in estuaries and provide a reference to the rapidly decaying hyperpycnal flows off the Huanghe river mouth due to climatic and anthropogenic forcing over the past several decades.     

The influence of Stokes drift on oil spills: Sanchi oil spill case

Spilled oil floats and travels across the water’s surface under the influence of wind, currents, and wave action. Wave-induced Stokes drift is an important physical process that can affect surface water particles but that is currently absent from oil spill analyses. In this study, two methods are applied to determine the velocity of Stokes drift, the first calculates velocity from the wind-related formula based upon a one-dimensional frequency spectrum, while the second determines velocity directly from the wave model that was based on a two-dimensional spectrum. The experimental results of numerous models indicated that: (1) oil simulations that include the influence of Stokes drift are more accurate than that those do not; (2) for medium and long-term simulations longer than two days or more, Stokes drift is a significant factor that should not be ignored, and its magnitude can reach about 2% of the wind speed; (3) the velocity of Stokes drift is related to the wind but is not linear. Therefore, Stokes drift cannot simply be replaced or substituted by simply increasing the wind drift factor, which can cause errors in oil spill projections; (4) the Stokes drift velocity obtained from the two-dimensional wave spectrum makes the oil spill simulation more accurate.     

Wave-induced drift of an elliptical surface film

This study investigates experimentally the drift velocity of an elliptical surface film advected by deep-water waves. Thin polyethylene sheets were used to simulate the inextensible surface film. The drift velocities were obtained by recording and analyzing a sequence of images captured using a video camera. The results show that the drift velocity increases with the longitudinal length of the polyethylene sheet until approximately 0.8 times the wavelength. Beyond that, further increment would not result in substantial increase in the drift velocity. The effect due to the normalized transverse width is found to be significant within a particular range. At large wave steepness, the drift velocity appears to be limited by the Stokes drift. A set of best-fit empirical equations based on the sigmoidal function is introduced for oil spill trajectory prediction.     

Constructing an idealized model of the North Atlantic Ocean using slippery sacks

This paper documents the continued development and testing of a new Lagrangian oceanic general circulation model. The slippery sacks ocean model (SSOM), which represents a body of water as a pile of conforming parcels, is improved and is used to simulate circulations in homogeneous oceans and in an idealized model of the North Atlantic Ocean.A method for including horizontal mixing in the SSOM is presented. A given sack’s nearest neighbors are identified in the positive and negative x- and y-directions, and the sack exchanges momentum and/or tracers with these neighbors. This formulation of mixing is straightforward to implement, computationally efficient, and it produces results similar to a standard Eulerian finite-difference representation of diffusion.The model’s ability to reproduce the Stommel and Munk solutions to the classical western boundary current problem is tested. When steps are taken to reduce the potential energy barrier to sacks crossing one another, the model generates circulations that are consistent with linear theory. In moderately non-linear regimes the model produces appropriate departures from linear solutions including a boundary current that continues along the northern boundary for a time.Taking advantage of the new mixing scheme and lessons learned from simulations of homogeneous oceans, the authors construct an idealized model of the North Atlantic Ocean. They compare simulations conducted with the SSOM to similar simulations conducted with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology general circulation model (MITgcm). The SSOM and the MITgcm produce similar wind-forced gyres, thermocline structure, and meridional overturning. The SSOM is also used to explore how circulations change in the limit when tracer diffusion goes to zero.     

A multi-model study of the restratification phase in an idealized convection basin

The representation of baroclinic instability in numerical models depends strongly upon the model physics and significant differences may be found depending on the vertical discretization of the governing dynamical equations. This dependency is explored in the context of the restratification of an idealized convective basin with no external forcing. A comparison is made between an isopycnic model including a mixed layer (the Miami Isopycnic Coordinate Ocean Model, MICOM), its adiabatic version (MICOM-ADIAB) in which the mixed layer physics are removed and the convective layer is described by a deep adiabatic layer outcropping at the surface instead of a thick dense mixed layer, and a z-coordinate model (OPA model).In the absence of a buoyancy source at the surface, the mixed layer geometry in MICOM prevents almost any retreat of this layer. As a result, lateral heat exchanges in the upper layers are limited while mass transfers across the outer boundary of the deep convective mixed layer result in an unrealistic outward spreading of this layer. Such a widespread deep mixed layer maintains a low level of baroclinic instability, and therefore limits lateral heat exchanges in the upper layers over most of the model domain. The behavior of the adiabatic isopycnic model and z-coordinate model is by far more satisfactory although contrasted features can be observed between the two simulations. In MICOM-ADIAB, the more baroclinic dynamics introduce a stronger contrast between the surface and the dense waters in the eddy kinetic energy and heat flux distributions. Better preservation of the density contrasts around the dense water patch maintains more persistent baroclinic instability, essentially associated with the process of dense water spreading. The OPA simulation shows a faster growth of the eddy kinetic energy in the early stages of the restratification which is attributed to more efficient baroclinic instability and leads to the most rapid buoyancy restoring in the convective area among the three simulations. Dense water spreading and warm surface capping occur on fairly similar time scales in MICOM-ADIAB although the former is more persistent that the latter. In this model, heat is mainly transported by anticyclonic eddies in the dense layer while both cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies are involved in the upper layers. In OPA, heat is mainly brought into the convective zone through the export of cold water trapped in cyclonic eddies with a strong barotropic structure. Probably the most interesting difference between the z-coordinate and the adiabatic isopycnic model is found in the temperature distribution ultimately produced by the restratification process. OPA generates a spurious volume of intermediate water which is not seen in MICOM-ADIAB where the volume of the dense water is preserved.     

Numerical modeling of wave runup and forces on an idealized beachfront house

In this paper, a numerical wave model based on the incompressible Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) and k–ε equations is used to estimate the impact of a solitary wave on an idealized beachfront house located at different elevations on a plane beach. The locations of the free surface are reconstructed by volume of fluid (VOF) method. The model is satisfactorily tested against the experimental data of wave runup, and the analytical solution of wave forces on vertical walls. The time histories of wave profiles, forces, and overturning moments on the idealized house are demonstrated and analyzed. The variations of wave forces and overturning moments with the elevation of the idealized beachfront house are also investigated.     

Wave-induced surface drift of an inextensible thin film

In this study, the surface drift of an inextensible film due to a series of progressive gravity waves is investigated both analytically and experimentally. A second approximation of the conformal mapping that transforms the progressive sinusoidal surface to the horizontal axis is applied, thus allowing the analysis to formally accommodate a boundary layer thickness that is much less than the wave height. By computing the stream function to the third order that is an order higher than the past analysis, a pressure component in phase with the wave slope is revealed. The pressure force generated is comparable to the bottom shear on the thin film induced by the moving fluid and thus cannot be ignored. Based on the combined forces on the surface firm, a mean drift is estimated by assuming that the opposing force is due to the viscous drag induced by the drift motion. The experimental results show that the computed drift velocity based on the present study mostly underestimates the experimental observations, but it is in closer agreement than the classical Phillips' 7/4 estimate.     

大气-海浪耦合模式及其在理想台风模拟中的应用研究

采用传统的理论模型或者经验公式构建台风动力场驱动海浪模式,无法反映台风影响下海气动力过程,难以为海浪模式提供高精度的台风风场、气压场数据。为解决这一问题,基于中尺度大气模式WRF和第三代海浪模式SWAN,构建大气-海浪实时双向耦合模式,并将其应用于理想台风的模拟之中。建立的WRF-SWAN耦合模式能够成功模拟理想台风影响下的台风浪分布特征,揭示了台风风场和台风浪在空间上的“右偏性”不对称分布特征,该模型可推广用于实际台风浪的模拟分析。     

溢油扩展、漂移及扩散预测技术研究进展

海上溢油灾害会严重破坏中国近海海洋环境,还会直接危害我国经济发展。因此,开展溢油预测预警技术研究是非常有必要的,能够为海上溢油应急响应提供技术支撑。本文综述了溢油扩展、漂移及扩散数值预测技术的发展过程及相关研究成果,包括溢油扩展模型、溢油漂移与扩散模型、溢油预测预警系统,为未来开展溢油应急工作提供了理论依据和参考。     

Evaluation of drift current parameters using an analytical model

The paper is concerned with the evaluation of the drift current parameters derived through the use of an analytical model. In this model, effective when stratification is stable and indifferent, the vertical turbulence coefficient profile is prescribed by the power function, and hydrodynamic quantities are prescribed using the external parameters of the problem (wind stress, the Coriolis parameter, and the dimensionless stratification parameter). Model data are compared with the observations of the upper mixed layer in the vicinity of the oceanic Station C, conducted during one year. It is shown that, under the spring-summer-time warming conditions, the model at issue is capable of adequately simulating the upper ocean layer dynamics. Translated by Vladimir A. Puchkin.     

Numerical study on evolution of an internal solitary wave across an idealized shelf with different front slopes

Numerical simulations are performed to investigate the influence of variable front slopes on flow evolution and waveform inversion of a depression ISW (internal solitary wave) over an idealized shelf with variable front slopes. A finite volume based on Cartesian grid method is adopted to solve the Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations using a k-ε model for the turbulent closure. Numerical results exhibit the variations of several pertinent properties of the flow field, in the case with or without waveform inversion on the horizontal plateau of an obstacle. The clockwise vortex is stronger than the counterclockwise one, almost throughout the wave-obstacle interaction. Analysis of the turbulent energy budget reveals that the turbulent production term in the governing equations dominates the wave evolution during a wave-obstacle interaction; otherwise the buoyancy production term and the dissipation term due to viscosity within turbulent eddies play a major role in energy dissipation. In addition, the front slope affects mainly the process and reflection of the wave evolution but has less influence than other physical parameters. Moreover, total wave energy of the leading crest is smaller than that of the leading trough even in the cases with waveform inversion on the plateau.     

Non-hydrostatic modelling of regular wave transformation and current circulation in an idealized reef-lagoon-channel system

The wave-induced setup and circulation in a two dimensional horizontal (2DH) reef-lagoon-channel system is investigated by a non-hydrostatic model. The simulated results agree well with observations from the laboratory experiments, revealing that the model is valid in simulating wave transformation and currents over reefs. The effects of incident wave height, period, and reef flat water depth on the mean sea level and wave-driven currents are examined. Results show that the distributions of mean sea level and current velocities on the reef flat adjacent to the channel vary significantly from those in the area close to the side walls. From the wave averaged current field, an obvious alongshore flux flowing from the reef flat to the channel is captured. The flux from the reef flat composes the second source of the offshore rip current, while the first source is from the lagoon. A detailed momentum balance analysis shows that the alongshore current is mainly induced by the pressure gradient between the reef flat and the channel. In the lagoon, the momentum balances are between the pressure and radiation stress gradient, which drives flow towards the channel. Along the channel, the offshore current is mainly driven by the pressure gradient.     

长江口宝钢码头溢油事故油膜漂移扩散数值模拟

溢油事故发生后,油膜的漂移扩散会对周围水域和环境敏感目标造成污染。研究溢油事故后油膜漂移扩散,可为溢油事故的处理提供理论指导。本文应用河口海岸三维水动力模式ECOM-si(semi-implicit estuarine,costal and ocean model),耦合溢油漂移扩散模块,模拟和分析长江口宝钢码头发生溢油事故后油膜的漂移扩散,以及对环境敏感保护目标的影响。基于长江口崇明东滩气象站实测风速风向资料,给出影响溢油漂移的主导风和不利风向。在冬季多年平均1月径流量11700m³·s^–1、主导风、3个不利风和潮汐作用下,数值模拟并详细给出了宝钢码头溢油事故发生后油膜的平面分布、油膜到达和离开4个水库取水口和饮用水水源保护区以及其他环境敏感保护区的时间、持续影响时间和最大油膜厚度。长江口宝钢码头溢油事故发生后,油膜随涨落潮流作上下游来回振荡,径流使油膜向海输运,风使油膜朝风向方向漂移。在主导风北风5.6m³·s^–1风速下,油膜沿长江口南岸向下游漂移扩散,小部分进入北槽南侧。在不利风向东南风4.0...     

Nonlinear mooring line induced slow drift motion of an ALP-tanker

A tanker moored to an articulated loading platform (ALP) is modeled by a 2-DOF system. The mooring line between the ALP and tanker is represented by an unsymmetric, piecewise-nonlinear restoring function. Forced vibrations of this system are investigated using direct numerical integration. The highly nonlinear characteristics, including multiple solution, subharmonics, and bifurcations are discussed. Slow drift oscillation could occur under harmonic excitations due to nonlinearities of the systems. The sensitivity of the dynamic response of the strong nonlinear system with respect to system parameters and initial conditions is examined.     

理想化南极融冰方案的海洋边界条件初探

基于气候态的SODA(simple Ocean Data Assimilation)数据,比较了气候态意义下南极附近和南极绕极流区域的海洋层结,对南极融冰问题的合理海洋边界条件进行了初步探讨.结果表明:南极融冰所注入的淡水通量在大西洋东部和印度洋海区将沿着表层路径到达南极绕极流区,在大西洋西部和太平洋的经向运动路径视淡...     

台风移行速度与登陆角度对风暴潮的影响:一个理想模型数值实验

The effects of hurricane forward speed(V) and approach angle(θ) on storm surge are important and a systematic investigation covering possible and continuous ranges of these parameters has not been done before. Here we present such a study with a numerical experiment using the Finite Volume Community Ocean Model(FVCOM).The hurricane track is simplified as a straight line, such that V and θ fully define the motion of the hurricane. The maximum surge is contributed by both free waves and a forced storm surge wave moving with the hurricane.Among the free waves, Kelvin-type waves can only propagate in the down-coast direction. Simulations show that those waves can only have a significant positive storm surge when the hurricane velocity has a down-coast component. The optimal values of V and θ that maximize the storm surge in an idealized semi-circular ocean basin are functions of the bathymetry. For a constant bathymetry, the maximum surge occurs when the hurricane approaches the coast from the normal direction when the free wave generation is minimal; for a stepped bathymetry, the maximum surge occurs at a certain acute approach angle which maximizes the duration of persistent wind forcing; a step-like bathymetry with a sloped shelf is similar to the stepped bathymetry, with the added possibility of landfall resonance when the free and forced waves are moving at about the same velocity. For other cases, the storm surge is smaller, given other parameters(hurricane size, maximum wind speed, etc.)unchanged.     

Mixed layer depth front and subduction of low potential vorticity water in an idealized ocean GCM

It is known that there is a front-like structure at the mixed layer depth (MLD) distribution in the subtropical gyre, which is called the MLD front, and is associated with the formation region of mode water. In the present article, the generation mechanism of the MLD front is studied using an idealized ocean general circulation model with no seasonal forcing. First, it is shown that the MLD front occurs along a curve where u _g ·∇T _s = 0 is satisfied (u _g is the upper ocean geostrophic velocity vector, T _s is the sea surface temperature and ∇ is the horizontal gradient operator). In other words, the front is the boundary between the subduction region (u _g ·∇T _s > 0) and the region where subduction does not occur (u _g ·∇T _s < 0). Second, we have investigated subduction of low potential vorticity water at the MLD front, which has been pointed out by past studies. Since u _g ·∇T _s = 0 at the MLD front, the water particles do not cross the outcrop at the MLD front. The water that is subducted at the MLD front has come from the deep mixed layer region where the sea surface temperature is higher than that at the MLD front. The temperature of the water in the deep mixed layer region decreases as it is advected eastward, attains its minimum at the MLD front where u _g ·∇T _s = 0, and then subducts under the warmer surface layer. Since the deep mixed layer water subducts beneath a thin stratified surface layer, maintaining its thickness, the mixed layer depth changes abruptly at the subduction location.     

Mixed layer depth front and subduction of low potential vorticity water under seasonal forcings in an idealized OGCM

The mixed layer depth (MLD) front and subduction under seasonal variability are investigated using an idealized ocean general circulation model (OGCM) with simple seasonal forcings. A sharp MLD front develops and subduction occurs at the front from late winter to early spring. The position of the MLD front agrees with the curve where \({\rm D}T_{\rm s}/{\rm D}t = \partial T_{\rm s} /\partial t + {\user2{u}}_{\rm g} \cdot \nabla T_{\rm s} = 0\) is satisfied (t is time, \({\user2{u}}_{\rm g}\) is the upper-ocean geostrophic velocity, \(T_{\rm s}\) is the sea surface temperature (SST), and \(\nabla\) is the horizontal gradient operator), indicating that thick mixed-layer water is subducted there parallel to the SST contour. This is a generalization of the past result that the MLD front coincides with the curve \({\user2{u}}_{\rm g} \cdot \nabla T_{\rm s} = 0\) when the forcing is steady. Irreversible subduction at the MLD front is limited to about 1 month, where the beginning of the irreversible subduction period agrees with the first coincidence of the MLD front and \({\rm D}T_{\rm s}/{\rm D}t =0\) in late winter, and the end of the period roughly corresponds to the disappearance of the MLD front in early spring. Subduction volume at the MLD front during this period is similar to that during 1 year in the steady-forcing model. Since the cooling of the deep mixed-layer water occurs only in winter and SST can not fully catch up with the seasonally varying reference temperature of restoring, the cooling rate of SST is reduced and the zonal gradient of the SST in the northwestern subtropical gyre is a little altered in the seasonal-forcing case. These effects result in slightly lower densities of subducted water and the eastward shift of the MLD front.