Introduction

The main purpose of these tutorials is to assist model users in performing hands-on applications of the OilFlow2D model using QGIS.

OilFlow2D is a two-dimensional model that simulates spreading of crude oils and other viscous fluids on the land surface, and trajectory and fate of crude oils on water. The oil spill on land module can simulate oil depths and velocity over irregular surfaces considering fluid properties such as density, viscosity that can vary in time. The model can use 3 different rheogological formulations for Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids that can have yield stress. The OilFlow2D model also accounts for oil evaporation and that process affects density and viscosity and its subsequent impact on fluid flow. The oil spill on water module uses a particle-tracking approach to simulate oil trajectories of oil spill, and includes oil fate algorithms to account for evaporation, emulsification, dissolution, dispersion, and interaction with shores.

The user interface of Hydronia models is based on QGIS, a powerful software for the analysis of geographic information systems of free distribution. This software system integrated with GMSH mesh generation plugin provides interactive functions to generate and refine the finite-volume flexible mesh, and uses familiar GIS objects to construct a high level representation of the model. QGIS also offers a complete set of visualization tools that include rendering, for the representation of the results generated by the model.