ABSTRACT
This chapter is an introduction to oil spill behavior. Summaries are given of important processes such as evaporation, water-in-oil emulsification, natural dispersion, and dissolution. Other processes such as photooxidation, sedimentation, and oil-fines interaction are introduced. An important behavior process is that of evaporation. Evaporation for light oils could involve a loss of 30 to 60 % of the oil’s mass over a two-day period. Algorithms for calculating evaporation are summarized. Another important behavior is that of water uptake. Oil may uptake water in one of five ways: as soluble water, no significant uptake or unstable, entrained water, mesostable emulsions, or stable emulsions. The latter three mechanisms are important as they have a large influence on the further behavior of the oil and thus influence countermeasures significantly.
