A numerical study of oil spill prediction in the Gulf of Thailand using ocean wave model

Abstract

Oil spill is the most important cause of marine pollution. It affects marine ecosystem, an economic system, and human society. The main chemical and physical properties are the so-called oil weathering processes; spreading is one of the processes. In this research, the spreading is mainly considered because it is the most dominant process at the beginning of an oil spill incident. A mathematical model for oil prediction, based on Fay’s hypothesis and Lehr’s formula, is used to simulate the spreading of oil spill. The model needs wind speed as the main factor. In this paper, the wave model, namely WAM, is used for simulation of atmospheric and oceanographic states. The wave model is based on the wave spectral balance equation. The numerical results from the oil spill model based on ocean wave modeling are shown to study oil spill incident at three different locations in the Gulf of Thailand.