NUMERICAL STUDY OF OIL SPILL IN THE PATOS LAGOON ESTUARY REGION

Abstract

The consumption pattern of the world population is based on petroleum derivatives, which despite contributing to the improvement of the quality of life, has negative aspects, mainly in the environmental scope. The number of oil spills in water slide has increased significantly in recent years. Considering the complexity of the marine environment, the present work aims to apply a identification system of the dynamics and dispersion of oil, using the numerical modeling in the region of Franceses Bridge, near to Patos Lagoon-RS, Brazil. The study of hypothetical events of oil leakage in the region is of fundamental importance, since the Riograndense Petroleum Refinery is located inside of the Patos Lagoon estuary. A data structure of atmospheric and oceanic circulation was organized and inserted in the coupling between the hydrodynamic module Telemac-3D and the ECOS oil model, during the period between 2010 and 2013. The coupling of these models provided satisfactory results, requiring a level of computational effort favorable to obtaining of results capable of giving technical and scientific support to studies such as those of environmental impacts and contingency plans.