Effect of Oil Spill on Ships

There should not be too much actual fouling from crude. The pumps and channels that you are talking about are pretty extensive and can take a lot of junk (seaweed, Driftwood, etc.) before experiencing too much damage. The crude should break up and be pretty low in concentration when flowing through these pipes.

I am not totally sure if I am right. I am talking from my experience working on Tug Boat engines and transmissions on the Columbia River and from experimenting with crude oil in a Fuels and Lubricants class I took in college.

i bet it slows down rusting of the steel hulls.

pity it has to so much damage to the animal life.

Slide thru the water faster.

With oil existing within the water column, my concern is on steam and nuclear power ships the seawater cooling water for the main condenser, the tube bank will get oil coated on the inside of the tube walls; thus, reducing the efficiency of the main propulsion plant.

Also, potable freshwater produced on ship is distilled seawater usually using a flash evaporator.

Having worked on a navy destroyer in the engine room, I don't think it would have much effect on the main condenser. That said, if crude were to find its way into the distillers, I believe this would create a big problem, both for potable water, and for the distilled water required to run steam plant, generators, etc. But, unless a vessel were to park directly over the leak, the displacement of the ship, the fact that seawater is pulled in from the bottom of the ship and the fact that oil floats on water, ( I don't imagine the oil would more than several inches thick on the surface), I think that if vessels just slowed their speed to the point that they are not churning crude down below the water level, everything should, in theory, be alright.

The unrefined Crude oil we were experimenting with in college didn't have the same properties as the oil you find in stores. It tended to "GLOB" into balls or bubbles when shook up in a glass graduated cylinder. It didn't tend to spread back out very fast and when we stopped shaking the cylinder, the residual film on the glass seemed to slide to the top relatively quick. I dont know if this will make more or less build up in tubes, lines, and hoses in the ship, or whether it will tend to flow with the water or not. I would think that the ships engineers would probly have a handle on this as good as anyone.

Because the density of oil is less than water, ships float lower in oil than water. What, you say the oil is a layer on top of the water? Then it shouldnt be much of an issue as ships seawater intakes are generally located well below the waterline.

Cheers Ron.

For the most part, that seems true. However, if the vessel traverses an area where oil is still rising to the surface, it could "swallow" some. I wonder if sonar can pick this out clearly in time to avoid such areas.

If the sonar operator has interest of current events I shouldn't worry about it...