The B. Montanari incident — A modelling study of vinyl chloride monomer dispersion at sea

Abstract

A modelling study of transport of vinyl chloride monomer in the sea following a leakage from the sunken ship B. Montanari is presented to help evaluate the impact of several strategies to save the environment from a leakage of the substance and to assess the area affected by concentrations that are considered harmful. As a first step, parameters of a stationary and a nonstationary leakage were estimated. The parameters included the discharge rate, the mean sea current vector, an extinction coefficient and the horizontal dispersion coefficient. The estimation was necessary since the complete behaviour of the substance in real conditions was not known. Upon completion of the estimation procedure, simulation of several cases was attempted. Firstly, results are presented concerning a transient concentration field in an unbounded environment following possible releases. Secondly, the results of the stationary leakage are compared for different current fields in the Bay of Remetic where the ship was taken for unloading.