Oil retention performance of skirted booms under varying hydrodynamic conditions

Skirted oil containment booms are widely used in marine oil spill mitigation, yet their performance under varying hydrodynamic conditions remains a critical challenge. This study presents a combined experimental and numerical investigation to evaluate the oil retention performance of skirted booms across a range of flow velocities, skirt lengths, and inclination angles. Laboratory-scale physical experiments were conducted to observe the dynamic oil-boom interaction, and a validated multiphase numerical model was employed to explore a broader parameter space. The results reveal that oil capture efficiency is highly sensitive to both flow intensity and skirt geometry. At low velocities (u₀ ≤ 0.2 m/s), booms exhibited high retention performance regardless of skirt length. However, with increasing flow velocity, particularly beyond a critical threshold (u_c ≈ 0.382 m/s), the influence of skirt length became nonlinear, with short skirts failing to maintain effective containment. A critical skirt length was identified, above which oil capture efficiency recovered sharply. Additionally, a performance map in Fr_Lp-L_p/H space illustrated that increasing the skirt inclination angle compressed high-efficiency zones, further reducing containment effectiveness under energetic flow conditions. These findings offer practical guidance for the design and deployment of skirted booms by quantifying key performance thresholds and flow-structure interactions. The integrated approach combining experimental observation and parametric simulation enhances the understanding of failure mechanisms and supports the development of more robust oil spill containment systems.