The main field of the invention is relating to transportable and built on-site container apparatus with controlled floatation and with self-collecting means for emergency water flooding hazard.
As known, overflowing and flooded water keep causing enormous damage of tens of billions of millions of dollars every year around the world. In many cases overflowing water causes loss of human and animal lives.
When flooded water rise and spill over the banks of the river, it significantly damages houses, industrial plants, public facilities and lands and causes loss of lives of people and animals that were trapped and drowned by the uncontrolled gushing cold water flow.
During recent years, climate changes caused flooding and overflow of many large rivers in US, South America, Africa, Asia and around the world and causing major damage and loss of lives in cities and towns along the river time and again. The field of the invention is emergency transportable and built on-site container apparatus with controlled floatation and with self-collecting means of large volume of water.
In addition, the field of the invention includes configurations in which multiple container apparatus are attached together laterally and longitudinally for increased floatability and increased water carrying capability.
Another field of the invention is special means for self-collecting water from a river or reservoir into a large volume floatable container at remote locations where power is not available for operation of large capacity water pumps. Another field of the invention is self collecting and hauling of drinking or irrigation water from remote places to dry places and deserts around the world that need drinking water for their population and animals and for irrigation of their fields. Another field of the invention relates to low cost reusable container apparatus of drinking and irrigation water that is transported by towing from one remote location with excess water to places where rain is rare and where water supply is critical to sustain human lives in existing cities and to extending the population to new towns.
Additional field of the invention relates to collecting oil spills in sea in container to prevent oil spill to beaches.
Another field of the invention is relating to transparent floatable marine container apparatus for large fish and sea animals. In addition, the field of the invention is relating to towable container apparatus filled with drinking water or seawater and used for transport of large fish and sea animals from one remote place to another.
The main object of the invention is to provide transportable and built on-site container apparatus with controlled-floatability and with self-collecting means for emergency situation of water flood in remote locations.
More particular objects of the invention is to provide a container apparatus with large volume and with controlled floatation that is quickly built on site during hours in remote geographical locations of flooded river or water reservoir or oil spill container.
More particular objects of the invention is to provide built on site container apparatus with controlled floatability and with water self-collecting means that is easily transportable in emergency or normal situations and when time limitation is critical.
More particular object of the invention is to provide multiple container apparatus configurations with lateral and longitudinal arrangement of multiple container apparatus that are attached to each other.
The multiple container apparatus configurations can be transported before assembly either by boat, or by truck, or by helicopter or parachute air type transportation to remote areas with no connection roads.
Furthermore, the object of the invention is to provide low cost novelty means for an easily transportable built on-site container apparatus with controlled floatability and with self-collecting means for water over flooded river or large water reservoir in which the water is collected into the container from the river without the need of using special high power water pumping means.
Furthermore, the object of this invention is to provide lateral multiple-container apparatus configurations in which the main container is laterally supported by two or more containers that are structurally attached to the main container apparatus and provide additional controlled floatability means for increased fluid volume capacity within the main container and within the additional containers.
In addition, the object of this invention is to provide longitudinal multiple container apparatus configuration with towing means in which the multiple container apparatus configuration can be towed by boat along a river, water reservoir, or salted water sea.
Another objection of the invention is using the container apparatus as large transparent floatable aquarium means for large fish and sea animals of variable sizes or to transport fish and sea animals of variable sizes from one remote place to another.
Furthermore, the object of this invention is to provide low cost and reusable lateral multiple-container apparatus configurations for handling large amount of water made with parts that are easily assembled and then disassembled for repeatable application at low operation cost.
The invention as herein described, by a way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Referring to
Helical spring 20 made of high strength wire with large diameter spring turns of up to 5 meters of uniform pitch provides the main mechanical structure of the container. End cover 64 is mechanically threaded and structurally attached to the helical spring 20 wire turns at each end of the container apparatus.
A continuous sealing wall strip 24 is wrapped around the helical spring and made of resilient and elastic plastic material with recycled plastic material. In
The container apparatus configuration of
Towing ring means 28 for towing the container apparatus is attached to the end cover 64.
Referring to
The container apparatus provides an emergency transportable and built on-site container apparatus with controlled floatation and with self-collecting means for large volume of water such as floodwater in rivers and water reservoirs.
The container apparatus is capable of self-collecting water without pump from river and water reservoir and transporting drinking, irrigation water, flood water, oil spill or other fluids from its building site location to desert and dry areas by towing means.
The container apparatus with controlled floatation and with self-collecting means for large volume of water is comprised of the largest diameter and longest helical steel wire spring that is practically transportable in compressed mode by land, air or naval transportation to the water flooded site.
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
The helical strip wall 30a, 30b with multiple helical inflation cavities 34a, 34b, 34c, 34d is creating internal and external wall of the container apparatus that is wrapped around and attached to the helical spring turns 20a, 20b, 20c on left side and on right side of the helical strip wall.
When inflated with compressed air from both ends, the volume of the helical inflation cavities 34a, 34b, 34c, 34d expands and increases the volume of the helical strip wall of the container apparatus and thereby amplifies its buoyant upward force that is controlled by the level of the compressed air pressure. Helical Clamp 32a, 32b, 32c with internal T-shape cross section structurally secures together extended helical L-shape 48a, 48b on right end and 46a, 46b and on left end of helical strip wall 30a, 30b over helical spring wire turns 20a, 20b, 20c.
When collecting water into the container apparatus, the air pressure is low to keep the container apparatus at low level. When the container apparatus is filled with water, the air pressure increased and the container floats at higher level as needed.
The helix shaped band is wrapped between every spring wire turn and the adjacent wire turn of the helical spring while right lateral side of the band is connected to its left lateral side around the helical spring wire turn.
Referring to
Cross sectional view of the helical strip wall 30a, 30b shows flow collection holes 50a, 50b and ball shaped floating member 52a, 52b that can move to the internal side of the hole to allow full flow into the container apparatus or to the external side of the hole to prevent flow from the container. The flow collection holes 50a, 50b are spaced along the helical strip wall from one end to the other. The flow collection holes are located all around the container wall perimeter with some submerge in the external water and some open to the atmospheric air pressure. The floating ball member is hollow and comprises of thin wall similar to light weight table tennis ball with large volume relative to its weight so that when submerges in water the buoyant force exceeds its gravitational force by ratio of more than twenty to one ratio.
In addition, helical L-shaped extension 40a, 40b on the left side of said helical strip wall internal side mates within L-shape cavities 38a, 38b in the right side to structurally secure the internal side of the helical strip wall.
Referring to
A cross bar connection means 44a with attachment ring 54a for external cable connection mechanically connects helical clamp 32a over helical spring wire turn 20a with clamp 32b over the adjacent spring wire turn 20b similarly cross bar connection means 44b with connection ring 54b connects helical clamp portion 32b to helical clamp portion 32c over the adjacent helical spring wire turn 20c. Cross bar connection means creates longitudinally strong construction of the container, capable of connecting to other container with cable through attachment rings and supporting it during towing of the container apparatus.
Helical sealing protrusion means 56a, 56b within the left side fits into similar shaped helical sealing cavity 60a, 60b in the right side of the helical strip wall to create water tight seal between right and left side ends of the helical strip wall.
Referring to
The multiple water self-collecting apparatus allows water to flow into the container apparatus while preventing water flow or leak away from the container apparatus.
Referring to
A light floating ball moves under external water 95 pressure to the internal side and pushed against mechanical stop protrusion 78 with diameter smaller than floating ball. Radial flow cavities 80 located between mechanical stop protrusions 78 allow maximum water flow around the floating ball into the container apparatus. The tapered portion 76 of the flow collection hole has smaller diameter than the floating ball diameter on the external side of the hole which stops the ball and creates seal with sealing lip 84. The gravitational force of the floating ball is negligible and its effect on the water pressure force on the floating ball is of lower significance. Helical float retaining cavities 82a and 82b along the helical strip wall have elongated narrow shape and are located adjacent to tapered hole 76 portion of the flow collection hole. When inflated by compressed air pressure from both sides of said helical strip wall, the helical float retaining cavities 82a, 82b expands into the tapered hole and pushing the floating ball toward the external sealing edge 84. When water level in the container reached desired level, compressed air from both sides of the helical strip wall is used to inflate the helical inflation cavities 34a, 34b which increases helical strip wall volume thus increasing buoyant force and raising the container to higher level relative to external water level. At elevated level, water pressure in the container is higher than external water pressure across every flow collection hole and the internal water pressure push the floating ball towards the external side of the tapered hole 76 and stopping at sealing lip 84. When container is filled to desired level and during towing of the container, compressed air pressure is continuously applied to helical floating ball retention cavities 82a, 82b to keep the float balls at sealed condition against sealing lip 84 to prevent ball movement which could cause water leakage.
Referring to
When launched into the river, with no inflating pressure in the helical inflation cavities 34a, 34b, 34c, 34d the container sinks into the water under its own weight. The external water pressure at the lowest depth of the container is high while the pressure inside the empty container is low or zero, therefore the external water pressure pushes the floating balls 86a, 86b toward the mechanical stop 78a, 78b against the negligible gravitational force of the floating ball and the water flow through the radical flow cavities 80a, 80b into the container similar to water flowing into broken walled ship.
After some time, the water in the container will reach the height equal to the submerged depth of the container in the external water and the water pressure across each flow collection holes will equalized so that water flow will stop. At this new condition, compressed air is applied from both ends of the helical strip wall to the helical inflation cavities to inflate the helical strip wall and increase the volume of the container for increased buoyancy force based on Archimedes Principle.
When inflated, the container will move up until the volume of the displaced river water equals to its weight based on Archimedes' principle, physical law of buoyancy. Archimedes principle stating that any body completely or partially submerged in a fluid at rest is acted upon by an upward, or buoyant, force the magnitude of which is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the body. After being raised to higher level of the container relative to external water, the internal container water pressure exceeds the external water pressure across each water collecting hole.
At higher level of the container relative to external water, the internal water pressure in the container exceeds the external water pressure across every flow collection hole. The internal water pressure push the floating ball 86a, 86b toward the external end and sealing lip and prevent water leakage from the container. At this condition, pressured air supply from both sides to helical ball retaining cavities to expand the cavities and apply retention force on the floating balls at 86a, 86b sealed condition.
The water can be pumped from one container apparatus to another for maximum and optimized water capacity that can be towed together along the river by towing boat or ship.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20120211502 A1 | Aug 2012 | US |