Fundamental Study on Air Bubble Type of Oil Fence

Abstract

A Curtain of air bubbles ejected from a pipe submerged in water may produce a rising flow of the water, which spreads into a horizontal flow at the water surface. Many researches about the breaking water using the horinzontal flow as a barrier were made so far. G.I. Taylor demonstrated theoretically that the surface flow from the adverse direction against waves can prevent the waves from progressing. H.E. Kobus and T.J. McDougal made analytical studies on the vertical rising flow including experimental constants. However, from the view point of the technology of air curtain such as the application to the oil fence, there may be few investigations on the behavior of the plume in the tidal current. The authors have made an analytical treatment of the twodimensional flow of vertically rising plume on the restricted condition using the data by H.E. Kobus. In the report, not only the velocity profile of the plume is measured, but also numerical analysis on the velocity and width of the plume is made on the more generalized assumptions. Moreover, experimental constant necessary to make a numerical calculation in the existence of the tidal current is estimated.