Poojitha D. Yapa

Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Wallace H. Coulter School of Engineering

Clarkson University

Modeling Oil Transport and spread in Ice Covered Waters

In earlier projects, analytical and experimental studies were conducted at Clarkson University to study the spreading behavior of oil when spilled in ice covered waters. Number of publications resulted from these work ( Yapa and Chowdhury, 1990; Weerasuriya and Yapa, 1993; Yapa and Belaskas, 1993; and Yapa and Weerasuviya, 1997).

In the current project, we are developing a numerical model to simulate the transport and spreading of oil in ice covered waters. The model can simulate oil spilled under solid ice or broken ice covers. The model will have the capability to simulate the conditions with low as well as high broken ice concentrations. Preliminary results from the model simulations show that the model closely mimics the available experimental data.