Mechanical Engineering

Burning of spilled oil on the ocean surface or in-situ combustion is one of the techniques used in oil spill clean up operations. With the passage of time as the crude oil stays on the ocean surface evaporation of the lighter components of the crude oil and mixing of water with the oil due to wind and ocean turbulence create emulsions that are more dense and more viscous than oil.This makes the ignition of the oil harder to achieve.Prior studies have shown that emulsions containing more than a certain fraction of water do not burnand thus present a difficulty in applying the in-situ combustion technique. Many normally incombustible materials can be ignited when subjected to a certain minimum heat fluxand sustained fire and flame spread can be achieved on these materials.In the present workthis principle is applied to the emulsion combustion problem so thatif successfulthe window of opportunity for in-situ combustion of oil spills can be widened.It is proposed that there exists a threshold heat flux level for most of the emulsions such thatwhen emulsion is exposed to a heat flux equal to or greater than the threshold heat fluxsustained fire and flame spread can be achieved.