A pneumatic barrier against oil spills in harbours

A pneumatic barrier, where supplied air is released from a diffuser located on the sea floor has been widely recognised as effective protection against oil spills. In order to obtain the most effective design, some relationships should be established among volume of supplied air, diameter of ports, spacing, and surface water horizontal velocity. The paper presents a simple method of obtaining the required relationships. Based on a case study in the North Harbour, Poland, where the barrier is located at a depth of 17 m, the deepest known-to-date, the method presented is justified by the positive results of the barrier in action.