Hydraulic and earth engineering – Subterranean or submarine pipe or cable laying – retrieving,... – Submerging – raising – or manipulating line of pipe or cable...
Patent
1992-01-29
1994-06-07
Taylor, Dennis L.
Hydraulic and earth engineering
Subterranean or submarine pipe or cable laying, retrieving,...
Submerging, raising, or manipulating line of pipe or cable...
405158, 405188, 405191, 166338, 166341, F16L 104
Patent
active
053183843
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention has as its object a device for releasing and recovering a heavy load on the ocean floor and more particularly such a device making possible the depositing of a load such as a hose to be released or a mooring buoy with a line for lowering or for releasing, such as a cable, a chain or a flexible tubular conduit and allowing its later recovery in particular in great water depths.
The invention also aims at assuring that the element used for the reconnection is always accessible even in case of very soft earth in which the deposited buoy would be totally or partially embedded.
Currently, this work is often performed by divers, but this solution exhibits the drawback of causing high labor costs and further cannot be used at a g great depth.
Also used are disconnectors, such as cable cutters for releasing the load, the take up for lifting being performed using a remote-controlled submarine vehicle manipulating a hook lowered with the lifting line.
This solution exhibits the drawback of not being able to be used for very heavy loads because of the size of the superstructure accessories to be manipulated. Further, the reconnection with the load released on the floor runs the risk of being difficult in the case where the floor consists of soft earth.
It is also possible to keep the end of the release line floating between the floor and the surface by using a buoy line or a cable connected to a subsurface buoy, itself connected by a cable to a marker buoy on the surface with which the recovery is performed.
In this case, the superstructure is complicated and the surface buoy runs the risk of being carried away by a ship or a storm. Further, the line of buoy lines must be of great length and great capacity in the case of heavy loads in great water depths.
This invention aims at overcoming these drawbacks.
For this purpose, the invention has as its object a device for releasing and recovering a heavy load on the ocean floor, comprising a first part able to be connected mechanically to a line for handling and recovery and a second part able to be connected mechanically to the load to be released, characterized by the fact that said second part has a positive buoyancy and comprises flexible means for connection to said load, each of the two parts comprising a cylindrical connecting element able to be fitted into one another, said device further comprising means for locking and unlocking the cylindrical connecting elements.
By cylinder is meant a surface produced by a straight line known as a generatrix, subject, on the one hand, to remain parallel in a fixed direction and, on the other hand, to encounter a main fixed plane curve known as a dirextorix. Preferably, the cylindrical surfaces opposite one another making it possible to perform the fitting of said connecting elements exhibit the shape of circular cylinders.
According to the invention, said second part comprises floating means to exhibit a positive buoyancy and flexible means for connection to said load.
The positive buoyancy makes it possible to assure accessibility to the second part even when the mooring buoy to be recovered is embedded in the ocean floor. Advantageously, the second part is produced so that the axis defined by its center of pressure P and its center of gravity G is parallel to the generatrices of the cylindrical connecting elements and so that center of pressure P is found, relative to center of gravity G, on the side of the upper end of the second part which comprises the upper front face of the cylindrical connecting element, center of gravity G being located relative to center of pressure P on the side of the lower end which comprises the connecting element with the flexible means for connection to the load. The uprightness of the cylindrical connecting element (mandrel, or receiving cylinder according to the adopted embodiment) of the second part, which facilitates the introduction of the mandrel in the receiving cylinder, is thus assured.
The load released on the floor acts as ballast holding said second part in positive
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Coutarel Alain
Jahant Guy
Maloberti Rene
Coflexip
Taylor Dennis L.
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