1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a floating unit and to a system for producing a modular floating structure including such floating units.
The invention further concerns a floating structure of variable configuration formed by assembling such units. This floating structure can be a ship, a floating catwalk or a floating platform.
2. Technological Background
There are known floating containers which, when they are moored to one another, make it possible to construct a boat for fighting an accidental spillage of hydrocarbons at sea.
These containers advantageously allow very rapid deployment by aircraft or by ship of means for containment of oil slicks.
In the latter case, and if the ship that is the cause of the accidental spillage of hydrocarbons is a container ship, these floating shipping containers can already be on board it.
However, the time necessary for assembling the various containers constituting the boat is particularly long and bothersome, whereas the intervention of containment means must be as rapid as possible to circumscribe the area contaminated by the hydrocarbons as soon as possible.
Moreover, it is necessary to place these containers in the sea in the immediate proximity of one another and sheltered by the container ship in order to be sure that the operatives can moor them to one another.
The assembly of these containers at sea can therefore be carried out only under favorable sea state conditions.
In fact, in a heavy swell, these containers are subject to large pitching and rolling movements, which compromise the maneuvers carried out by the operatives to bring together and connect to one another the plane faces of these containers and their safety.
Moreover, it is seen that the containers then tend to move away from one another, thereby preventing the operative moving from one container to another to connect them to each other.
Containers that have drifted a great distance may be out of the immediate reach of the operative, the incomplete modular boat therefore being rendered inoperative.
Now, the use of such modular boats is typically made necessary following an incident or a shipwreck occurring under unfavorable meteorological conditions.
Moreover, each container is often functionalized, one carrying the propulsion system of the boat, the other the wheel house of the boat, the third constituting a storage area, and so on.
It is therefore necessary to assemble these containers in a precise order, which renders the operation of assembling these containers at sea even more constraining for the operatives.
These boats also have a particular length and width, which correspond to assembling a limited number of containers in a given direction thereof.
Now, there exists a need for a modular boat the dimensions of which can be varied at will in the longitudinal and/or transverse direction thereof.
There also exists a need for such a modular boat to be able to assume a particular geometric shape, temporary or not, at one of its ends at least (bow or stern) and/or on at least one of its sides as a function of technical or logistical requirements or of the wishes of the operative.
The present invention aims to alleviate these various drawbacks of the prior art by proposing a system for producing a modular floating structure, temporary or not, of simple design and simple use, ensuring facilitated assembly of floating modules to one another to construct this floating structure, and without risk to the operatives, even if such assembly must be carried out under unfavorable meteorological conditions.
Another object of the present invention is such a system allowing evolution in terms of the shape and/or the dimensions of the floating structure.
To this end, the invention concerns a method for assembling at least two floating units in order to produce a floating structure.
According to the invention, the following steps are performed:
a) a projectile placed at the end of a mooring line is launched from a first floating unit in the direction of means for receiving and retaining said projectile placed on a second floating unit,
b) said projectile being received in a non-destructive manner in said receiving-retaining means, said mooring line is positioned along or substantially along a traction axis of said second floating unit and traction is exerted on said mooring line from said first floating unit to move said second floating unit toward said first floating unit,
c) said first floating unit including at least one male and/or female coupling element placed on the external surface of its hull and said second floating unit including at least one female and/or male coupling element complementary to said male and/or female coupling element of said first floating unit, said at least one male and/or female coupling element of said first unit and said at least one complementary coupling element of said second unit are coupled to immobilize degrees of freedom of movement between said floating units coupled in this way,
d) the assembly comprising said first and second floating units is locked.
The projectile of the connection system can therefore be launched or projected from the first floating unit in order to couple this first floating unit with another floating unit without an operative needing to intervene on this second floating unit during this coupling phase. Once these two units have been coupled, the respective coupling elements cooperating to immobilize degrees of freedom of movement between these floating units, the assembly formed in this way is stable, and the operative can then, if necessary, move on to the other floating unit to carry out maneuvers or operations there.
By way of illustration only, those operations may aim to couple this assembly with a new floating unit or to fasten these floating units coupled in this way to complementary fixing members such as bolts, anchor ring chains or other locking devices intended to be received in lugs or housings placed so that they can still be manipulated or accessed from the upper portion of the floating units.
The present invention therefore advantageously makes it possible to couple floating units placed at a distance from one another without risk to the operative, the latter remaining on the first floating unit, or with no personnel on board, the operations being remote-controlled.
To this end, the projectile is received in the housing of receiving-retaining means of a floating unit after being launched or projected from another floating unit, and is retained therein without necessitating any step of manual assembly or fastening of this projectile in this housing.
Moreover, when the floating units are placed in the water, the various forces generated on these floating units by the water tend to move them relative to one another vertically and/or in rotation. The shape of the coupling elements advantageously makes it possible to immobilize these various movements, which could for example lead to a fault affecting the fixing members for fastening together the floating units coupled in this way or the mooring line that is tensioned to fasten them together.
In various particular embodiments of this method for producing a floating structure, each having its specific advantages and being open to numerous possible technical combinations:
By way of illustration only, this guiding can be achieved by the flared shape of a female coupling element and the complementary shape of the male coupling member.
The present invention also concerns a system for implementing the method as described above of producing a floating structure including a first floating unit and at least one second floating unit intended to be assembled together to form said floating structure.
According to the invention,
In various specific embodiments of this system for producing a floating structure, each having its specific advantages and being open to numerous possible technical combinations:
The first floating unit can then include a second connecting system including a projectile connected to a free end of a mooring line for connecting it to said third floating unit or means for receiving and retaining a projectile from said third floating unit, said receiving-retaining means including a housing for receiving said projectile, the shape of said projectile ensuring its placement in said housing in a non-destructive manner.
Said or each of said means for receiving and retaining said at least one projectile preferably includes an orifice placed in the upper portion of said corresponding floating unit, said orifice being in communication with said housing placed inside said floating unit, said orifice being delimited over at least a portion of the latter by a wall having a funnel shape to guide said at least one projectile toward said housing.
This funnel can have any appropriate shape, such as pyramidal, conical or frustoconical. The upper end of this funnel is preferably flush with the upper surface, or deck, of the corresponding floating unit.
The passage advantageously leads on the one hand to the orifice placed in the upper portion of the corresponding floating unit and on the other hand to the perimeter of this corresponding floating unit, this passage being intended to receive a portion of said mooring line.
The lower end of this passage may be centered on a corresponding coupling element or on the face of said floating unit carrying said at least one corresponding coupling element.
This embodiment advantageously enables orientation of the mooring line and consequently movement of the floating units toward one another in a preferential direction.
These diverting means advantageously make it possible, when deployed, to intercept the launched or projected projectile and divert the latter toward the orifice of the receiving-retaining means.
By way of illustration only, these diverting means may be formed by a deck portion of the corresponding floating unit, which is raised and lowered by means of at least one remote-controlled actuator.
The internal surface of this housing may be smooth.
The receiving-retaining means may include a retractable partition for immobilizing the projectile in this housing. This partition may then include an opening for the passage of the mooring line that is connected to the projectile. This partition may be moved in the orifice to close the housing by means of an actuator such as a cylinder.
This winding in/paying out device advantageously makes it possible to tension the mooring line and to immobilize the floating units coupled together in this way, forming a rigid structure.
It preferably includes in addition to the launching device an aiming device facilitating the launching or firing of the projectile by the operative toward the receiving-retaining means of another floating unit.
Alternatively, if this operative remote-controls the firing or the launching of the projectile, the launching device and/or the depositing device may be coupled to a video camera.
Said launching device and/or said depositing device are advantageously placed in the upper portion of said at least one of said floating units, said upper portion being placed opposite the lower portion of said floating unit intended to be at least partly immersed and providing the buoyancy of said floating unit.
Thus a propulsion system is preferably attached to at least one of the floating units, not initially provided with such propulsion means, which advantageously makes it possible not to require these floating units to be assembled in a particular order.
By way of illustration only, the male coupling member could therefore be divided into two parts arranged along its longitudinal dimension, a first part placed at its free end and a second part fastened to the body of the corresponding floating unit.
This first part would have a shape ensuring guidance thereof in the complementary female coupling member, such as a conical shape. For its part, the second part would include a cylindrical body of smaller section and provided with at least two fins placed to project laterally from this cylindrical body in a horizontal (and/or vertical) plane.
The female coupling member complementary to this male member would also comprise two parts:
Once the first part of the male coupling member is engaged in this housing, there would then no longer be any obstacle to the jaws urged toward their initial position by compression springs closing onto the second part of the male coupling member, thereby trapping the first part of the male coupling member and also immobilizing pivoting of one floating unit relative to the other. Another alternative is for at least some floating units to be able to include on the same face two coupling members each intended to immobilize the movement of the ship in a given direction.
By way of illustration, one of these members could immobilize vertical movement of the floating units relative to one another while another coupling member would immobilize pivoting of these floating units.
These connection ports may advantageously be configured so that the hydraulic and/or electric connection between two ports is established automatically on coupling the corresponding two floating units.
The present invention also concerns a modular floating structure including at least two floating modules assembled together. In accordance with the invention, at least some of said floating modules are floating units of the system as described above.
This floating structure, which may be temporary or permanent, can thus form a boat, a floating catwalk, a floating bridge or a floating platform for receiving installations.
The invention further concerns a floating unit including:
The projectile is preferably a hollow or solid spherical body. This body may be made of wood, plastic or metal.
Said or each of said means for receiving and retaining at least one projectile advantageously opens at a first of its end into the upper portion of the corresponding floating unit, said upper portion being placed opposite the lower portion of the floating unit intended to be at least partially immersed and providing the buoyancy of said floating unit.
Accordingly, said at least one receiving-retaining means include an orifice placed in the upper portion of the floating unit, this orifice being in communication with said housing placed inside this floating unit, said orifice being delimited over at least a portion of the latter by a wall having a funnel shape to guide said at least one projectile toward said housing.
Moreover, said at least one receiving-retaining means may include at least one groove, this groove leading on the one hand to this orifice placed in the upper portion of said floating unit and on the other hand to the perimeter of this floating unit, this groove being intended to receive a portion of the mooring line of a connecting system of another floating unit.
The bottom of this groove is advantageously centered on a corresponding coupling member or on the face of said floating unit carrying said at least one corresponding coupling member.
In order to increase the efficacy of the coupling member described here, the latter is preferably centered on the faces intended to enable the coupling.
This floating unit preferably includes a parallelepipedal body having the dimensions of all or part of a 10-foot, 20-foot, 30-foot, 40-foot or 45-foot ISO shipping container, or any other dimension of a standard container defined by the standards ISO 668 and ISO 1496-1 or any other reference system or standard used in multimode transportation by sea, river, road, rail or air, this body including arrangements for holding, manipulating and fixing said unit, each of said arrangements being placed at a corner of said body.
Other advantages, objects and particular features of the present invention will emerge from the following description given by way of non-limiting explanation with reference to the appended drawings, in which:
First, note that the figures are not to scale.
This modular boat includes a first floating unit 10 and a second floating unit 11 each having the shape of a hexahedron defining a hollow body with six quadrilaterals. Here these bodies are made of steel.
The first floating unit 10 includes a male coupling member 12 placed at one of its ends. This male coupling member 12 has a prism shape with an isosceles triangle base, the lateral faces 13 of this prism being trapezoidal. Alternatively, these lateral faces 13 could be rectangular.
The second floating unit 11 includes a female coupling member 14 having a shape complementary to that of this male coupling member 12 so that these members 12, 14 fit together when they are coupled.
This particular shape of the coupling members 12, 14 of the units advantageously ensures progressive coupling of the floating units 10, 11 to each other to form the modular boat.
When these floating units 10, 11 are coupled, these coupling members 12, 14 moreover immobilize vertical movements and movements in rotation of the floating units relative to each other.
The first floating unit 10 also includes a weight 15 fastened to a sling 16 and placed at the free end of the latter. This sling 16 has its other end connected to a winding in/playing out device 17, passing through the center 18 of the apex of the male coupling member 12, this member itself being centered on the rectangular front face of the body of the first floating unit 10.
This weight 15, which here is a hollow steel sphere, is advantageously sufficiently heavy not to be diverted from its trajectory by a weak puff of wind whilst being sufficiently light so that it can be launched by an operative placed on the first floating unit 10 at a distance from the second floating unit 11 in the direction of means 19 for receiving and retaining it.
By way of illustration only, and as a function of the strength of the operative, this weight 15 of approximately 1 kilogram may be launched by the operator to a distance of several meters, for example ten (10) meters, with very good accuracy.
These receiving-retaining means 19 include an orifice 20 opening onto the deck 21 of this second floating unit 11. This orifice 20 is in communication with a housing 22 placed in the body of this floating unit 11 so that the weight 15, once introduced into the orifice 20, falls by gravity into this housing 22.
This orifice 20 is delimited in its upper portion by a wall having a funnel shape to guide the weight 15 toward the housing 22, the upper end of this funnel being flush with the surface of the deck 21.
These receiving-retaining means 19 also include a groove 23 opening on the one hand into this orifice 20 placed in the upper portion of the second floating unit 11 and the housing 22 and on the other hand onto the perimeter of this floating unit at the level of the central portion of the complementary female coupling member 14.
This groove 23 receives a portion of the sling 16 after positioning of the weight 15 in its housing 22 and advantageously make it possible when the floating units 10, 11 are moved toward each other by winding in the sling 16 onto the winding in/playing out device 17 to steer the coupling members 12, 14 toward each other.
The housing 22 includes a cavity off-center relative to the orifice 20 enabling the weight 15 to be placed in a stable position when the sling 16 is tensioned and preventing this weight from escaping from its housing 22.
At least one of these floating units 10, 11 advantageously includes a propulsion system (not shown). This propulsion system may be attached to or form an integral part of the corresponding floating unit 10, 11.
The elements from
This system differs from that from
The elements from
The second floating unit differs from that from
This therefore optimizes the surface of the deck of the second floating unit 11, no space being lost to receive the receiving-retaining means 19.
The elements from
The hull of the floating unit includes a watertight compartment 27 defining a housing that can be partly flooded in which is placed a male coupling element 28 fastened to a base 29 able to float. The hull also includes an opening 30 leading into said compartment 27 for the passage of said male coupling element when this watertight compartment is at least partly flooded with water. The floating unit further includes means (not shown) for partly filling this compartment 27 with sea water 31. These compartment filling means may comprise a pump, the compartment preferably including a sensor controlling this pump so as to stop the flooding of the compartment as soon as the water level has reached a particular threshold 32 set by the position of the sensor in this compartment 27. This level may be the waterline of the floating unit.
The male coupling element 28 can therefore be deployed without human intervention. The base 29 able to float tilts this male coupling element 28 from its stowed position in which no part of the coupling element projects out of the floating unit to a deployed position in which the male coupling element 28 is in position to be assembled with a female coupling element of a corresponding other floating unit in order to form a floating structure.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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1257097 | Jul 2012 | FR | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/EP2013/065551 | 7/23/2013 | WO | 00 |