JPS61291294A - Salvaging method and device for underwater object - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To float up an underwater object easily, by sinking a float with plural weights close to an underwater object, removing the weights partially to balance the float, installing the float to the underwater object, and removing the remaining weights. CONSTITUTION:A floating device 12 consisting of a float 1 attached with weights 2 and 4, is sunk at the sea bed 9 close to a submarine boat 5. Then an unmanned diving machine 7 connected with a cable 7b is approached to the floating device 12 through detecting the signal of a sonar 3. The weight 4 is cut from the weight 2 by a manupilator 7a, to adjust the total underwater weight of the float 1, the weight 2, and the sonar 3 about at zero. After that, they are moved to the submarine 5, the hook 8 of a rope 11 is fixed to a gear metal 5a, a rope 10 is cut to remove the weight 2, and the float 1 is floated up. There the buoyancy of the float 1 acts to float up the submarine 5 easily and quickly.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for pulling up an underwater object such as a sunken ship by attaching a buoyancy member to the underwater object on the seabed.

[Conventional technology]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Various methods have been proposed and implemented to retrieve underwater objects on the seabed, such as sunken ships and valuable seabed resources, including the following.

(i) Attach a buoyancy tank to the underwater object to be lifted;
A drainage pump installed in the buoyancy tank discharges the seawater in the buoyancy tank, and air is sent from the ocean via a pipe connected to the buoyancy tank to fill the buoyancy tank with air, which generates buoyancy. A means of lifting underwater objects.

(ii) Attach a buoyancy tank to the underwater object to be lifted;
High-pressure air is sent through a pipe connected to the buoyancy tank, and this high-pressure air drains the seawater inside the buoyancy tank, filling the buoyancy tank with air, and using the buoyancy generated by this to pull underwater objects. means of raising.

(iii) A means of capturing an underwater object to be pulled up and directly pulling it up using a manned submersible or a remotely operated unmanned underwater vehicle.

(1v) Using a manned submersible or a remotely controlled unmanned submersible, connect one end of the lifting lobe to the underwater object to be pulled up, wind the other end of the lobe with an offshore winch, etc., and submerge the object underwater. A means of lifting things up.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, these conventional means for pulling up underwater objects each have the following problems.

First, with the conventional first method [item (i)], the pipe connected to the buoyancy tank needs to be pulled up to the ocean, and the drainage pump has to be installed near the seabed. It is extremely difficult to pull things up.

In the conventional second method E item (ii)], when the depth of the seabed where underwater objects are located becomes X, the pressure of the air used to discharge the seawater in the buoyancy tank becomes extremely high, so high-pressure air is sent. In addition to requiring the pipe to be pressure-resistant, it has very poor volumetric efficiency, making it unsuitable for lifting heavy objects in deep sea.

In the conventional third means [item (iii)], underwater objects are directly pulled up by a diver or an unmanned underwater vehicle, so there are restrictions on the weight and size of underwater objects that can be pulled up.

Furthermore, the fourth conventional means [item (iv)] is effective when the depth of the seabed where the underwater object is located is relatively shallow, but when the depth becomes deeper, the pulling rope becomes difficult to use. Since the rope is greatly affected by ocean currents, it is difficult for manned submersibles and unmanned submersibles to index and transport the rope to underwater objects.

Therefore, means and devices for pulling up underwater objects as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 have also been proposed. As shown in FIG. #S4, a lifting device i as a device for pulling up underwater objects is composed of a buoyancy material for lifting underwater objects and a weight a detachably attached to the buoyancy material.

In this lifting and recovery device 1, the sum of the underwater weights of the weight a and the buoyancy material is adjusted so that it is slightly heavier than zero, while the buoyancy material is attached to the underwater object. Therefore, a rope e having 7 hooks f at its tip is provided via a locking device. In addition, the weight a and the buoyancy material are engaged by a locking device (not shown), and this locking device is
It has a mechanism that allows it to be separated with a simple operation using toggles, levers, etc.

When lifting the submersible C as an underwater object sunk on the ocean floor using such a lifting device, the lifting device i is lowered from a mother ship (not shown) on the ocean to the sea surface, The submersible is connected to another healthy submersible, and the submersible carries and places it on the seabed near the submersible C as an underwater object. At this time, since the center of gravity of the lifting and recovering device i is on the weight a side, the lifting and recovering device i is placed upright on the ocean floor as shown in FIG. 4.

Then, in the same manner as described above, lift and recover devices i are installed in an appropriate number (in Figures 4 and 5, 2 @) will be transported to the seabed hJ:, near submersible C. After this,
By a manipulator of a healthy submersible (not shown), etc.
As shown for the left hoisting device i in Fig. 4,
The 7 hooks f of each lifting and recovering device i are locked to the locking hardware g of the submersible vessel C.

Next, the locking devices (not shown) in each lifting and recovering device i are released by appropriate means such as a manipulator of a healthy submersible.

As a result, the buoyant material floats up, as shown in Figure 5.
The buoyant force of the buoyancy material acts on the submersible C as an underwater object through the locking d, the lobes e+7 and the locking hardware g, so the submersible C can be pulled up to the ocean.

According to the above-described means and device for lifting underwater objects, it is possible to efficiently levitate underwater objects at great depths relatively easily without requiring special power and without being affected by ocean currents. In addition, by increasing the number of lifting and recovery devices i, even underwater objects with a considerably large weight can be lifted up.

However, this means and device for pulling up underwater objects has the following problems.

(A) When wind and waves on the sea surface are large, it becomes extremely difficult to unload the lifting device i from the mother ship (not shown) and connect it to a healthy submersible.

(b) When ocean currents are fast, a healthy submersible carrying the lifting device i may be swept away by the darkness that captures underwater objects and sinks, and a large thrust is required to prevent this. shall be.

(1) To pull up a large underwater object, many buoyant materials are required, which requires a healthy submersible to make multiple trips between the seabed and the sea surface, which takes a lot of time. Therefore, it is not suitable for emergency situations such as rescuing lives in a sunken submersible.

In view of these circumstances, the present invention has been developed to make it extremely easy and quick to attach a buoyancy material to an underwater object on the seabed and pull it up, even if it is a heavy underwater object at a great depth. An object of the present invention is to provide a method for pulling up an underwater object and a device therefor by which the underwater object can be pulled up.

[Means for solving problems]

For this reason, the method of pulling up an underwater object of the present invention is a method of attaching a buoyancy material to an underwater object on the seabed and pulling up the underwater object, in which a plurality of weights are attached to the buoyancy material and the underwater object is pulled up near the underwater object. After settling, and then removing part of the weight from the buoyant material to adjust the sum of the underwater weights of the buoyant material and the remaining weight to zero or around zero, the buoyant material and the remaining weight are After moving the weight to the above underwater object,
The buoyancy material is attached to the underwater object, the remaining weight is removed from the buoyancy material, and the underwater object is floated by the buoyancy material.

Further, the underwater object pulling device of the present invention includes a buoyancy material for pulling up an underwater object, and a first buoyancy material detachably attached to the buoyancy material.
It consists of a weight, a second weight, and an acoustic transmitter attached to the buoyant material to notify the position of the buoyant material that has sunk to the seabed, and the second weight is removed. The present invention is characterized in that the sum of the underwater weights of the buoyant material, the first weight, and the acoustic transmitter is zero or approximately zero.

[Function] In the above-described method for pulling up an underwater object of the present invention, the buoyancy material to which a plurality of weights are attached is allowed to settle near the underwater object, and then a part of the weights is removed to remove the buoyancy material. After adjusting so that the sum of the underwater weight of the weight and the remaining weight is zero or near zero,
Move these buoyancy materials and the remaining weight to the above underwater object! !
IJi! -Let. Then, the buoyancy material is attached to the underwater object, the remaining weight is removed from the buoyancy material, and the underwater object is floated by the buoyancy material.

In addition, in the underwater object pulling device of the present invention described above, the position of the buoyancy material is confirmed by the acoustic transmitter, and by removing the second weight, the buoyancy material and the acoustic transmitter are connected to the first one by removing the second weight. The sum of the weight in water and the weight is zero or near zero.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, a method and apparatus for pulling up underwater objects as an embodiment of the present invention will be explained with reference to the drawings. FIG. FIG. 3 is a side view showing a procedure for attaching a buoyancy material to an underwater object in the method for pulling up an underwater object, and FIG. 3 is a side view showing a state in which the underwater object is floated by the buoyancy material.

As shown in FIG. 1, a lifting device 12 as a device for lifting underwater objects in this embodiment can be attached to and detached from a buoyancy material 1 for lifting underwater objects having an appropriate buoyancy via a rope 10. It consists of a first weight 2 and a second weight 4 attached to the buoyancy material 1, and an acoustic transmitter 3 attached to the buoyancy material 1 to notify the position of the buoyancy material 1 that has sunk to the seabed. There is.

In this lifting and recovery device 12, the buoyant material 1. It is adjusted so that the sum of the underwater weights of the first weight 2 and the acoustic transmitter 3 is zero or near zero. That is, by adding the weight 4 of vJ2, the hoisting and recovering device 12 as a whole has negative buoyancy in the water.

Further, the base end of a lobe 11 having seven hooks 8 at its tip is fixed to the row 110 in order to attach the buoyancy material 1 to an underwater object. Furthermore, the first weight 2 and the second weight 4 are engaged with a locking device (not shown), and this locking device is
The mechanism allows for easy separation using toggles, levers, etc.

As the buoyant material 1, a glass microballoon hardened with epoxy resin is used to withstand the large water pressure of the deep sea, and as the weights 2 and 4, scrap iron or the like is used, and an acoustic transmitter is used. As 3, a pinger or the like is used.

When lifting the submersible vessel 5 as an underwater object sunk onto the seabed 9 using the lifting and recovering device 12 configured as described above, first, the lifting and recovering device 12 is dropped from a mother ship (not shown) on the ocean, and then The negative buoyancy causes the submersible to sink to the seabed 9 near the submersible 5. When the lift and recovery device 12 reaches the seabed 9, its center of gravity is on the weights 2 and 4 side, so it sinks upright on the seabed 9, as shown in FIG.

Further, the number of lifting and recovering devices 12 (two in this embodiment) is lowered such that the total underwater weight of the #41 weights 2 is equal to or greater than the underwater weight of the submersible vessel 5 to be lifted.

Next, as shown in FIG. 2, the unmanned submarine 1f17, which is connected to the mother ship (not shown) via the cable 7b, is lowered to the vicinity of the seabed 9, and the sound IIl signal transmitted by the acoustic transmitter 3 in the lifting device 12 is detected. At the same time, the unmanned underwater vehicle 7 is brought close to the lift and recovery device 12 on the seabed 9 by remote control. Then, using the manipulator 7a of the unmanned diving fi7,
By releasing a locking device (not shown) in the hoisting and recovering device 12, the second weight 4 is separated from the first weight 2, and the buoyancy material 1. The sum total of the underwater weights of the first weight 2 and the acoustic transmitter 3 is adjusted to zero or near zero.

Thereafter, the manipulator 7a of the unmanned underwater vehicle 7 moves the buoyancy material 1 and the weight 2 to the submersible vessel 5, and the 7 hooks 8 at the tip of the rope 11 are connected to the locking hardware 5a of the submersible vessel 5 (or an appropriate Attach the buoyancy material 1 to the submersible 5.
Attach to.

Next, the same manipulator 7a is used to cut the lobe 10 connecting the buoyant material 1 and the first weight 2, as shown for the buoyant material 1 on the right in FIG. The weight 2 of is removed, and the buoyant member 1 on the right side in
The buoyancy material 1 is floated as shown in FIG.

Such a procedure is performed for each hoisting and recovering device 12,
The buoyancy material 1 is attached to the submersible vessel 5, and as shown in Fig. 3,
The buoyant force of the buoyancy material 1 is applied to the submersible 5I via the rope 11°7 hook 8 and the locking hardware 5a, and the submersible 5 is pulled up to the ocean.

In addition, as a weight, one consisting of a steel box body as a first weight and a large number of small steel balls as a second weight that are housed in the same box body so as to be ejectable is used. In this case, by opening a valve provided at the bottom of the box, a large number of small steel balls serving as the second weight can be ejected from the box.
Try to remove it. The underwater weights of the box body and the large number of small steel balls are the same as those of the first weight 2 and the second weight 4, respectively.
is set similarly to the underwater weight of

Further, in this embodiment, a remotely controlled unmanned submarine 7 is used for the underwater work, but the above-mentioned work may be performed using a manned submersible or the like.

In the above-described method and device for lifting underwater objects as an embodiment of the present invention, the lifting and recovering device i12 sinks due to its own weight, so the unmanned submersible tfi7 or the manned submersible is used to move between the sea surface and the seabed 9. There is no need for transportation back and forth. Therefore, the necessary number of buoyancy members 1 can be easily and quickly lowered to a predetermined position, that is, near the submersible vessel 5 as an underwater object on the seabed 9.

At this time, even if the hoisting and recovering device 12 lands on the bottom at a position far from the predetermined position due to the influence of ocean currents, etc., if the acoustic signal emitted by the acoustic transmitter 3 in the hoisting and recovering device 12 is detected, it can be easily detected. Its position can be confirmed, and the unmanned underwater vehicle 7 or the like near the seabed 9 can quickly recover the lifting and recovery device 12. In addition, since this acoustic transmitter 3 is attached to the buoyant material 1, it can be reused together with the buoyant material 1.
Even if the submersible 5, which floats due to the buoyancy of the boat, is swept away by ocean currents, its floating position can be easily confirmed.

Furthermore, when moving the buoyant material 1 to the submersible vessel 5 near the seabed 9, the first weight 2 is added to the buoyant material 1, and the underwater weight as a whole is zero or near zero. The buoyant material 1 can be handled extremely easily by the unmanned underwater vehicle 7 or the like.

On the other hand, since the weights 2 and 4 are made of scrap iron, etc., the weights 2 and 4 left on the seabed 9 are inexpensive, and the expensive buoyancy material 1 and acoustic transmitter 3 are used as underwater objects. Since the submersible is recovered at sea together with the submersible, the underwater object can be pulled up economically using this method and this device.

Furthermore, by increasing the number of buoyancy materials 1 by dropping a large number of lifting and recovery devices RA12, even underwater objects having a considerably large underwater weight can be pulled up.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described in detail above, according to the method for pulling up an underwater object of the present invention, a plurality of weights are attached to a buoyancy material and the underwater object is caused to settle in the vicinity of the underwater object, and then some of the weights are attached to the buoyancy material. After adjusting the underwater weight of the buoyancy material and the remaining weight to zero or near zero by removing it from the object, move these buoyancy materials and the remaining weight to the underwater object, and then With the simple procedure of attaching the buoyancy material to the underwater object, removing the remaining weight from the buoyancy material, and levitating the underwater object using the buoyancy material, a large number of objects can be floated without using special power. Since the buoyant material can be lowered to the bottom of the sea, even underwater objects at great depths can be pulled up very easily and quickly.

Further, according to the underwater object lifting device of the present invention, a buoyancy material for lifting an underwater object, a first weight and a second weight removably attached to the buoyancy material, and a buoyancy material for lifting an underwater object that has sunk to the seabed. and an acoustic transmitter attached to the buoyant material to notify the position of the buoyant material, and the buoyant material with the second weight removed, the first weight, and the acoustic transmitter underwater. It is configured so that the sum of the weights is zero or near zero, so
The acoustic transmitter makes it easy to confirm the location of buoyant materials that have sunk to the sea floor and the locations of underwater objects that have surfaced on the ocean. Furthermore, since the underwater weight of this device can be adjusted to zero or near zero by removing the second weight, there is also the advantage that the device can be extremely easily handled underwater.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figures 1 to 3 show a method and device for pulling up underwater objects as an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 2 is a side view showing the procedure for attaching the buoyancy material to the underwater object in the method for pulling up the underwater object, and Figure PIIJ3 is a side view showing the floating state of the underwater object by the buoyancy material.
The figure shows an example of another method for pulling up underwater objects and its equipment for reference. Figure 4 is a side view showing the device and the procedure for attaching it to the underwater object, and Figure 5 is It is a side view which shows the floating state of underwater objects by the buoyancy material. 1. Buoyancy material, 2. First weight, 3. Sound transmitter,
4. Second weight, 5. Submersible as an underwater object, 5a
...Latching hardware, 7..Unmanned submarine, 7a-φ manipulator, 7b..cable, 8..7tsuk, 9..bottom floor,
10.11... Lobe, 12... Lifting and recovery device as underwater object lifting device. Sub-Agent Patent Attorney Yoshihiko Iinuma Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) In a method of attaching a buoyant material to an underwater object on the seabed and pulling up the underwater object, a plurality of weights are attached to the buoyant material and the object is caused to settle near the underwater object, and then some of the weights are attached to the underwater object. is removed from the buoyancy material to adjust the sum of the underwater weights of the buoyancy material and the remaining weight to zero or around zero, and then these buoyancy materials and the remaining weight are moved to the underwater object. and then attaching the buoyancy material to the underwater object, removing the remaining weight from the buoyancy material, and levitating the underwater object using the buoyancy material. (2) A buoyancy material for lifting underwater objects, a first weight and a second weight removably attached to the buoyancy material, and the buoyancy material for reporting the position of the buoyancy material that has sunk to the seabed. and an acoustic transmitter attached to the buoyancy material, such that the sum of the underwater weights of the buoyancy material from which the second weight is removed, the first weight, and the acoustic transmitter is zero or near zero. A device for pulling up underwater objects, characterized by comprising: