MODELLING THE AUTOMATIC DEPLOYMENT OF OIL-SPILL BOOMS: A SIMULATION SCENARIO FOR SEA CLEANING

Booms are extensively used for confining oil spilled at sea and for carrying it away from sensitive areas or toward a gathering point. The success of booming operations depends on effective boom deployment, which, in turn, is conditioned by the state of the sea - wind, tides, currents, and waves - and its effects on the spill spreading shape and speed. Planning the boom deployment beforehand could help overcome problems derived from sea condition. Besides, the employment of Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) for towing spill recovery booms represents an interesting alternative to the use of ordinary vessels, and it could lead to a fully automatic oil spill recovery system. A basic tool has been developed in Python to simulate the deployment of booms towed by USVs. The aim is to explore simple trial scenarios, working out information that helps to prototype real USV-boom systems and to plan automatic deployments.