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Challenges of fluid mechanics in dealing with marine oil spills

Hyungmin Park*,† and Jaebeen Lee

Linfeng Piao

  • Center for Particle-Laden Turbulence, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu, People's Republic of China

  • *Also at Institute of Advanced Machines and Design, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea.
  • †Contact author: hminpark@snu.ac.kr
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Phys. Rev. Fluids 11, 090505 – Published 28 September, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/tmdb-6s2p

Abstract

The accidental release of ship fuel oils has been responsible for coupled environmental, economic, and engineering challenges. In marine oil-spill response, fluid-mechanical considerations are crucial for predicting spreading, entrainment, emulsification, adhesion, recovery, and transport. However, many practical countermeasures remain industry-driven and are only weakly connected to academic advances in multiphase flows, in particular, interfacial phenomena and rheology. This gap has become more critical after IMO 2020, as the low-sulfur fuel oil (LSFO) has been widely adopted. Compared with conventional heavy fuel oils, LSFO exhibits distinct composition-dependent rheology and interfacial behavior, including strong temperature sensitivity, wax-related viscosity increase, and partial solidification. The MV Wakashio spill in 2020 highlighted the limitations of conventional remediation methods for such fuels. This perspective reviews the compositional and rheological differences between conventional fuels and LSFOs, while focusing on fluid-dynamic challenges across stages ranging from spreading prediction to transport for onshore storage. We further discuss future opportunities, including AI-assisted methods and multiphase-flow strategies for improving recovery robustness and transport efficiency.

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Phys. Rev. Fluids 11, 090505– Published 28 September, 2026
  • Received 23 May 2026
  • Accepted 3 September 2026
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