• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.33-47
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• 2012

This study revealed the behavior of droplets formed through leak process in deep water. There was a threshold depth named the universal attraction depth (UAD). Droplets rose upward in the zone below the UAD called the rising zone, and settled down in the zone above the UAD called the settling zone. Three mass loss modes were identified and formulated: dissolution induced by mass transfer, condensation by heat transfer and phase separation by pressure decrease. The first two were active for the settling zone, and all the three were effective for the rising zone. In consequence, the life time of the droplets in the rising zone was far shorter than that of the droplets in the settling zone.