Determination of the Thermal Efficiency of Pre-boilover Burning of a Slick of Oil on Water

The burning rate of a slick of oil on a water bed is calculated by a simple expression derived from a one-dimensional heat conduction equation. Heat feedback from the flame to the surface is assumed to be a constant fraction of the total energy released by the combustion reaction. The constant fraction (χ) is named the burning efficiency and represents an important tool in assessing the potential of in situ burning as a counter-measure to an oil-spill. The total heat release, as a function of the pool diameter, is obtained from an existing correlation. It is assumed that radiative heat is absorbed close to the fuel surface, that conduction is the dominant mode of heat transfer in the liquid phase and that the fuel boiling temperature remains constant. By matching the characteristic thermal penetration length scale for the fuel/water system and an equivalent single layer system, a combined thermal diffusivity can be calculated and used to obtain an analytical solution for the burning rate. Theoretical expressions were correlated with crude oil and heating oil, for a number of pool diameters and initial fuel layer thickness. Experiments were also conducted with emulsified and weathered crude oil. The simple analytical expression describes well the effects of pool diameter and initial fuel layer thickness permitting a better observation of the effects of weathering, emulsification and net heat feedback to the fuel surface. Experiments showed that only a small fraction of the heat released by the flame is retained by the fuel layer and water bed (of the order of 1%). The effect of weathering on the burning rate decreases with the weathering period and that emulsification results in a linear decrease of the burning rate with water content.