Ships – Building
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-16
2001-06-05
Avila, Stephen (Department: 3617)
Ships
Building
Reexamination Certificate
active
06240867
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to the service facilities of waterborne vessels, and more particularly to layouts of cooling, electrical, water, and like services for ease of servicing andor reliability.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Modern seagoing vessels, such as cargo, passenger, and war ships, have service requirements such as supply of electricity, cooling andor heating, fresh water supply, and waste management. In the Arleigh Burke class of destroyers, for example, all of these requirements are present. Electrical generation in an electric-drive vessel is often provided by large engine-driven generators which supply the propeller motors, and a portion of the generated power is tapped from the generators for ancillary or auxiliary purposes, such as “hotel” services. Hotel services includes such services as space heating andor cooling, lighting, and fresh water supply. Such a system requires an extensive power distribution system providing adequate power throughout the ship.
Air conditioning and heating services in ships are often provided by one or more heat exchangers or chillers which reject heat from chilled fresh water to sea water pumped from outside the ship. The chilled water is then distributed to points of use, which desirably should be near the heat exchanger to avoid excessive fluid runs and the associated efficiency losses. These requirements are often met by a few air conditioning systems spaced about the ship. Such air conditioning units may be very large. In the above-mentioned Arleigh Burke class ships, four such units are used, each of about 200 tons (2.5 million BTU) capacity. These units are spaced about the ship in locations central to regions of use.
Fresh water for ships is now provided by reverse-osmosis filtration or by boilers, both of which are often large centralized units, requiring distribution systems for the fresh water. Similarly, waste management regulation no longer permits overboard discharge of untreated waste.
Improved service systems are desired.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A ship according to an aspect of the invention includes a plurality of bulkheads separating the ship (or more properly, its hull) into various nominally watertight zones. A watertight zone is the volume bounded by the hull and a watertight upper deck, lying between watertight vertical or nearly-vertical bulkheads. In this context, the uppermost deck which forms the upper boundary of such a watertight zone may be considered to be a bulkhead. Most of the zones are used for various “essential” purposes attributable to a mission of the ship, but one or more, such as the forwardmost compartment, is provided as a buffer against the possibility of frontal collision, and this forwardmost zone(s) is often used, for the most part, for storage, such as for anchor chain, and for other nonessential uses. A plurality of passageways of standard sizes extend within at least some of the zones, and extend between at least some of the zones and adjacent zones, and between at least some of the zones and the outside of the ship. Those of the passageways which extend between zones, or which extend between a zone and the outside of the ship are fitted with watertight fittings, hatches or “doors.” In a ship according to an aspect of the invention, various critical users of cooling are distributed about the zones of the ship. In this context, a critical user of the cooling service is one which, if not provided with cooling, directly and adversely affects a mission of the ship. A critical use in a combat vessel might be, for example, a cooling system which keeps a radar equipment at proper operating temperature. A plurality of chilled fluid producers are provided. A chilled fluid producer may be, for example, an air conditioning unit for generating cooled air, or a chilled-water producer, for generating chilled water for cooling a heat sink of an electrical apparatus. Each of the chilled fluid producers has outer dimensions selected to pass through one of the passageways, so that dimensionally, any one of the chilled fluid producers can be moved about the ship, or removed from the ship, without structural modification of the ship. Each of the chilled fluid producers is located in one of the zones, and each of the zones contains at least three of the chilled fluid producers. The number of the chilled fluid producers in each of the zones is at least equal to that number which provides an amount of cooling exceeding the amount of the cooling required by the critical users of the zone in which the chilled fluid providers are located. Thus, cooling service is provided in each zone, so that damage to another zone cannot cut off the cooling service to an undamaged zone, and the mission of the equipments in the undamaged zone can continue, since damage to the cooling service equipment in one zone does not affect service to the adjacent zone.
In a particular avatar of the invention, each of the chilled fluid producers requires a flow of water or other medium into which heat can be rejected. The ship further includes, within each zone, first and second sources of heat exchange fluid, which is ordinarily water. The heat exchange water may be sea water pumped directly from outside the ship, or it may be fresh water (or, of course, some other heat exchange fluid) in thermal communication with sea water pumped from outside of the ship, so that the heat exchange water ultimately exchanges heat with the ocean. Plumbing is coupled to the first and second heat exchange fluid sources and to the chilled fluid producers within the zone, so that (a) at least one of the chilled fluid producers receives heat exchange water from the first source of heat exchange water within that zone, and (b) at least one other of the chilled fluid producers receives heat exchange water from the second source of heat exchange water within that zone.
In a preferred embodiment of the avatar, the first source of heat exchange water (or at least its distribution system) within a first zone is, or lies, adjacent a first side of a vertically oriented bulkhead separating the first zone from a second zone, and the ship further includes a third source of heat exchange water located in the second zone, adjacent a second side of the vertically oriented bulkhead. A heat exchange fluid path extends through the bulkhead near the first and third sources of heat exchange water, or at least their distribution systems. The heat exchange fluid path through the bulkhead is closed off to avoid the potential for flooding between zones, and is available for connection to one of the first and third sources of heat exchange water and to at least one of the chilled fluid producers in the adjacent and first zones, respectively. This arrangement allows damage to one of the heat exchange fluid sources in one zone to be bypassed, by connecting the chilled fluid producers or cooling fluid generators in the one zone (the zone in which the damaged heat exchange fluid source(s) lie) to the (presumably undamaged) source of heat exchange fluid in the next adjacent zone. In this preferred embodiment, each of the first and third sources of heat exchange water comprises a vertically oriented distribution pipe for the flow of the heat exchange water between a location below the sources of chilled fluid to a location at the same height as the sources of chilled fluid, together with a pump located near the bottom of the distribution pipe, for pumping the heat exchange water to the chilled fluid provider. As mentioned, the heat exchange fluid may be fresh or salt water. If the heat exchange fluid circulating through the chilled fluid producers or cooling fluid generators is other than salt water, the arrangement may also include a heat-exchange-fluid-to-salt-water heat exchanger located anywhere along the vertically oriented distribution pipe, but preferably near the bottom thereof. The preferred heat exchange fluid is fresh water. In one version, two heat exchangers may be provided in each zone. The heat exchangers are normally located low in the ship, and are
Hoyle Scott Baxter
McSweeney Michael Anthony
Avila Stephen
Lockheed Martin Corporation
Meise W. H.
Weinstein S. D.
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