Recovery of oil‐pollutant from shipwrecks: DIFIS project

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to describe a method for the prompt intervention and remediation of tanker wrecks, for recovering the fuel trapped in their tanks.

Design/methodology/approach

The environmental conditions, the functional specifications, the conceptual and preliminary design, the computational methods (fluid/structure interaction, computational fluid dynamics analysis and finite element analysis), the hydrodynamic scale model tests and the dynamic response analysis are included in this research paper.

Findings

The paper provides analytical and numerical tools for the response of subsea structures. These tools were calibrated by hydrodynamic scale model tests and extrapolated for different depths (shallow, deep water and ultra deep water).

Research limitations/implications

The method is applicable as long as the trapped pollutant does not dissolve and is of lower density than the sea water.

Originality/value

This paper presents a new structure for the oil recovery from shipwrecks, which is simple and quickly deployed.

Citation

Mazarakos, D.E., Andritsos, F. and Kostopoulos, V. (2012), "Recovery of oil‐pollutant from shipwrecks: DIFIS project", International Journal of Structural Integrity, Vol. 3 No. 3, pp. 285-319. https://doi.org/10.1108/17579861211264398