OSRR-333-Field Experiments at the Ohmsett Facility, Especially for a Newly Designed Boom System

The U. Miami researchers have developed a new boom design that uses inclined plane technology with a series of three carefully spaced, trailing, horizontal barriers. The spacing and varying drafts of these trailing barriers is the unique design change. The U. Miami has already tested the design in a flume tank and had promising results. At the typical tow/current speed of 0.75 knots, the oil collection efficiency remained as high as 98%, which would be a significant improvement over current boom technology. The proposal is now to build a full scale prototype and test it at Ohmsett. If successful, the design will be patented and offered to commercial firms for development as a new boom type. The patenting process also makes this a restricted and unique proposed effort.