The failure of booms to contain floating oil in currents above 0.5 m/s appears to be well established. A method suggested to surmount this limitation is to use the boom in a diversionary mode to move the oil into regions of low currents where containment and removal can be accomplished. Previous tow tests with booms deployed in a diversionary mode have shown that oil droplets are often entrained in a flow under the boom. In these tests, the booms are set at an angle to the direction of tow and do not extend entirely across the tank. Typically, the length of boom employed in these tests was 30 m. Failure of the boom to contain oil occurred near the trailing end of the boom over approximately one-third of the length of the boom. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sponsored a test program at their oil and hazardous materials simulated environmental test tank (OHMSETT) to study and document the near-field hydrodynamics of the trailing end of a diversionary boom. Three-dimensional flow fields were examined visually, using dye and oil droplets with a towed underwater video system designed and built as part of the program. Turbulence intensity was simultaneously documented photographically and measured with a hot-film anemometer.

"April 1978." EPA Contract No. Contract Number: 68-03-0490. Includes bibliographical references (pages 28-29).