Test and Evaluation of Four Fire Resistant Booms at OHMSETT
Abstract
During the period of August 22 - October 12, 1998, seven commercial fire booms were involved in burn testing at the U.S. Coast Guard Fire and Safety Test Detachment in Mobile, Alabama, in accordance with the proposed protocol, American Society for Testing and Materials-F20. Four of the seven booms survived the test sequence and were shipped from Mobile, Alabama, to the Minerals Management Service's OHMSETT facility for additional tests including first loss, gross loss, tow speed, oil loss rate, and critical tow speed. The four booms showed the same trend in response to various wave conditions; the long sinusoidal waves improved containment performance and the short, choppy waves degraded performance. One of the four booms achieved slightly higher first and gross oil loss speeds in each test. Three of the four booms performed comparably during the oil loss rate tests. One boom demonstrated superior stability at high tow speeds. The results of this test report are consistent with the evaluation of fire booms previously tested at OHMSETT, but also show a slight increase in performance. The tests indicate that the existing fire booms can contain oil in currents up to 1 knot and in various wave conditions alter being exposed to multiple bums. This information will be used by the Coast Guard to develop policies and procedures for the In-Situ Burning (ISB) of oil during a spill.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 1999
- Accession Number
- ADA371800
Entities
People
- David Devitis
- Kathleen Nolan
- William Schmidt
Organizations
- United States Coast Guard Research & Development Center