Numerical and experimental simulation on efficiency of air bubble barrier on various pollutants for preventing oil spill spread

This study conducts experimental and numerical simulations and analyzes the effects of the air bubble barrier (ABB) on the oil spill spread prevention efficiency regarding the varying aperture diameter, air discharge, and pollutant type. In a computational fluid dynamics simulation, a multiphase flow is studied using the finite volume method with the volume of fluid technique in the Star CCM+ software. The pipe generating air bubbles is fixed at the bottom of the tank at 1.8 m from the side of the experimental setup. The distinctive points of the study are the experiments conducted on different pollutants and the utilization of a novel adjustable air nozzle positioned on the air feed pipe. The effectiveness of the ABB in mitigating the spread of marine pollution is contingent on the aperture size, air discharge, and pollutant type. This study demonstrates that the ABB's feasibility for preventing the oil spill spread has improved.