Multiphase plumes in a stratified rotating environment

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in 2010 led to a formation of a long-lived turbulent multiphase plume consisting of a mixture of saltwater, oil droplets and gas bubbles. The plume was discharged into a stratified rotating environment and persisted for several months. Thus, its dynamics were likely affected by the Earth's rotation. Additionally, gas bubbles and oil droplets possessed the so-called slip velocity by means of which they could separate from the entrained seawater flow. Thus, modelling the dynamics of a multiphase plume in a stratified rotating environment is important for understanding and predicting the transport and the ultimate fate of oil released into the ocean. In this talk, we present results from small-scale laboratory experiments on bubble plumes in a stratified rotating environment. We use sugar instead of salt to create background stratification, which allows us to control independently the main parameters of the problem: the stratification frequency, the Rossby number and the slip velocity of the bubbles. In our data analysis, we focus in particular on the vertical distribution of the multiphase effluent within the water column and discuss the changes in the structure of lateral intrusions of the multiphase plume compared to the non-rotating case.