DK143417B - LIQUID BARRIER TO COLLECT POLLUTANTS IN THE SEA, FLOOD AND SEA AREAS - Google Patents

Description

(19) DENMARK (W.

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(12) PREFACE SCRIPTURE <n> 143A-17B

DIRECTORATE OF THE PATENT AND TRADEMARKET SYSTEM

(21) Application No. 2742/72 (51) Lnt.CI.3 E 02 B 15/04 (22) Filing date 1 · Jun. 1972 (24) Race day 1 · Jun. 1972 (41) Aim. available Dec. 3 1972 (44) Posted Aug 17 1981 (86) International Application No. ~ (86) International Filing Day - (85) Continuation Day - (62) Master Application No. ~

(30) Priority Jun 2 1971 ^ 7120049, ER

(71) Applicant PNEUMATIQUES CAOUTCHOUC MANUFACTURE ET PLASTIQUES KLEBER-COLOM = BES, (92) Colombes, ER.

(72) Inventor Louis Ballu, PR.

(74) Plenipotentiary Danish Patent Office ApS.

(54) Liquid barrier for pooling pollution in marine, river and lake areas.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention relates to a liquid barrier for collecting contaminants at sea, river and lake, and comprising a flexible curtain with floating bodies at one edge and ballast bodies at the other edge of the curtain to keep the curtain substantially vertical in the water. .

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^ Among the numerous properties which such barriers should possess besides not being capable of being decomposed, there are two essential ones: t ^ For a prompt response to pollution of the kind, such pollution barriers should first and above all, it could be easily and quickly transported to the place where it is to be inserted, and thus must be light with a small volume and must be able to be placed in the water extremely quickly.

Secondly, they should have as longitudinal agility as possible so that they can easily adapt to movements in the water surface, such as swells, so that they are not exposed to excessive influences and so that the water cannot pass over them causing the objects. and materials that one has set out to withhold.

The liquid pollution barriers, whose floating bodies consist of solid hollow bodies or soft cylindrical bodies, inflated with air or filled with a material that causes them to float, do not meet the conditions specified above especially because they are poorly suited. for storage in low space and for quick insertion into the water, just as their longitudinal agility is too low.

It has been proposed, as described in Danish patent application no.

1576/71, to carry out such pollution barriers whose compressible float bodies are provided with expansion means which can expand to thereby form the float bodies as the air enters the interior thereof through openings provided with valves.

Such liquid pollution barriers are compelling in their principle, but in reality they present innumerable drawbacks, e.g. can only be used if the water is calm and a quick placement in the water leaves much to be desired.

The said valves shall be capable of allowing air to pass in both directions, from the outside to the interior of the float when the barrier is to be used, and from the inside to the atmosphere when the float is to be compressed to store, while at the same time preventing passage of water. Such valves are difficult to design and manufacture. However, when these barriers are in use, the dynamic water pressure on these valves, e.g. when the water is in turmoil, greater than the air pressure affecting them as the expansion members unfold, so that they nevertheless allow the water to pass when the pollution barrier is in use. Furthermore, in order that the contamination barrier may have sufficient longitudinal flexibility, the aforementioned expansion means for unfolding the aircraft members and retaining their shape are only spaced apart with the result that the pressure exerted by the waves and the wind constantly exerts on the flexible outer wall of the floating body, as well as the deformation of the floating body itself while identifying the contamination, pushes the air out of the interior of the floating body, causing an approximation of the side walls to each other and thus a reduced flow capacity.

In summary, the valve is either arranged to allow the air to pass easily and therefore causes an easy and rapid unfolding and compression of the buoyant body, while at the same time the buoyancy is poor as air can escape and water enters or it is arranged so that that the air passes only to a small extent, whereby the unfolding and compression of the floating body becomes slow, so that the pollution barrier is put in place and stored more slowly than if its floating bodies were constantly inflated with compressed air.

The invention has for its object to provide a liquid barrier of the kind stated in the introduction, which does not have the disadvantages mentioned, and which can easily be laid out and inhaled, as it must be able to be wound up on a drum during flattening of the floating bodies or otherwise stored with relatively low space requirements.

This is achieved with the barrier according to the invention, which is characterized by the characterizing part of claim 1.

Such a barrier has a very longitudinal agility because it can bend along the seams without affecting the floating bodies themselves. Furthermore, it is simple and inexpensive to manufacture because there are no valves or special air supply devices.

In laying, the pockets are filled with air before they reach the water surface, and under the influence of the ballast bodies 4 143417 water penetrates into the lower part of the pockets through the downwardly facing openings and partly blocks the air present in the pockets and partly puts this air under a certain pressure, which further increases the barrier's resistance to external influences without reducing flexibility.

The curtain may be of an elastic material which causes the pockets to expand during laying, but the pockets may also in known manner be provided with expandable means which are arranged during laying out to hold the pockets and keep them in air-filled condition. According to the invention, these expandable members are helically wound spring members, the axis of which in the expanded state is parallel to the height of the pockets, and whose single turns go against the side walls of the pockets and are pivotally connected to one of these side walls.

Hereby is obtained a simple expanding member, the winding of which flattens the pockets about the points of attachment and folds on top of each other, and which in an expanded state contributes to the shape resistance of the pockets under strong external influences, even if a pocket should puncture.

In a particular embodiment of the barrier according to the invention, one part of the curtain extends substantially beyond the said connecting means. In this way, material can be saved at particularly deep barriers.

In a preferred embodiment, the ballast bodies are a heavy chain extending throughout the length of the curtain and each of the connecting members extends through one of the links of the chain. Not only does this result in an evenly distributed ballast, but also that the side portions of the barrier are spaced apart to facilitate the passage of air into the pockets.

Finally, this latter embodiment may be designed in such a way that the connecting means are spaced from the edges of the curtain so that the ballast chain is completely concealed. This embodiment is advantageous in areas where there is a risk that the chain may seize any objects in the water.

The invention will be further explained in the following by some embodiments with reference to the drawing, in which 5 143 Λ17 fig. 1 shows a liquid barrier according to the invention; FIG. 2 is a horizontal section II-II of the barrier of FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is a vertical section III-III of the barrier of FIG. 1 is a side view of FIG. 4 is a vertical section analogous to the section shown in FIG. 3, but with the barrier floating in the water; FIG. 5 is a section analogous to the section of FIG. 3, the liquid barrier being disposed with flat pockets; and FIG. 6 is a vertical section of another embodiment of a liquid pollution barrier according to the invention.

The liquid pollution barriers in the examples described below are made of a woven fabric longitudinally folded to form two walls, 10a and 10b, which are connected to one another along their upper edge. This band is made of woven fabric impregnated with rubber to make it water and airtight. It can also be made of other flexible, waterproof and airtight material. It can be in one piece or be made up of several smaller pieces.

On the inside of the collapsed material, helicaloid helices 11 are arranged at regular spacing with vertical axis, the individual turns being fixed to one of the inner walls (shown here 10b) so that they can rotate about the point of attachment. In the illustrated embodiment, this attachment is made by braces 13. Between two consecutive spirals 11, the walls 10a and 10b are pressed against each other and glued along the zone 14. These zones 14 extend from the upper part of each wall ie. from the upper part of the pollution barrier down to a point at the same height as the lower winding of the spirals 11 or possibly slightly lower. Instead of gluing the walls 10a and 10b, one can assemble them by means of a sewing, but in this case it is appropriate that this sewing is airtight.

In this way, a plurality of pockets or bells are formed which do not have interconnection, which are independent of each other and have an opening below, and which are connected to each other by a band of flexible material 14 which forms a separation between two consecutive pockets. From one place to another, the walls 10a and 10b are attached at the bottom to each other by means of a ring 16 or a stud 17 with two fuses or a screw bolt with two nuts 19 and 18 passing through two holes in the walls 10a and 10b. The presence of the spirals 11 which keep the walls 10a and 10b apart, thus forming the pockets or bells 15, necessitates folding in certain places 20 on the lower edge of the Walls 10a and 10b so that these edges can be rectilinear . It is convenient to place the members assembling the walls 10a and 10b (such as the rings 16 or the bolts 17) at the aforementioned locations 20, so that these members simultaneously hold the fold 20 to the corresponding wall 10a or 10b. Furthermore, as in the illustrated embodiments, these bodies can be further benefited as well as the fact that they are located in a zone of strong mechanical strength due to the presence of several layers of material by attaching to them a ballast chain 21.

In order to tow the pollution barrier, a rope or cable 12 is attached to the upper part.

Turning the turns of the coils 11 around their points of attachment, the turns lean against each other and form a collapsed coil. In this way, the bells or pockets 15 become flat, as shown in FIG. 5, and the pollution barrier can be rolled onto a drum or folded as a harmonica.

As the contamination barrier unfolds or unfolds, the spirals straighten out, removing one wall 10a from the other 10b, forming the pockets or bells. This is done immediately, with the air easily passing through the space between the lower portions of the walls 10a and 10b without difficulty reaching and filling the pockets or bells 15. The air also satisfies the space between the walls 10a and 10b below the pockets.

When the barrier is put into the water, it is inclined to the water surface, first placing one end in place in the water and then progressively allowing the other parts to follow until the other end of the pollution barrier are in place. During this operation in the water, the water ejects the air located below the pockets 15 and between the two walls 10a and 10b, but in turn, the water shuts off the air in the pockets 15, and as it compresses the air, it rises in the water. the pockets until, according to Archimedes's law, a balance is reached between the weight of the pollution barrier and the buoyancy thereof. Thus, the pockets are spaced by a pressure slightly higher than the atmospheric pressure. Obviously, this overpressure depends on the weight of the pollution barrier including the ballast chain, but is not greater than a few g / cm, e.g. Thus, this overpressure is very small and much less than the pressure in the compressed air inflatable bodies used in certain pollution barriers. Under the influence of this overpressure, the pockets seek to assume a spherical shape (the spirals 11 are attached only to one inside of the pockets), as indicated in FIG. 4 showing a section of the pollution barrier of FIG. 1 when it is floating.

The waves and wind in the direction 22 can exert pressure on the retracted pockets 15 causing a compression thereof, as much easier as the internal overpressure is low, but here the spirals 11 act as they limit this compression, thereby avoiding reducing the volume of pockets 15 so that the flowability of the pollution barrier is dangerously impaired. If the pockets settle as a result of the influence of the wind and the waves, the water filling the space between the walls 10a and 10b will oppose that the content of air in the pockets 15 escapes, thus avoiding a deterioration of the barrier's flowability.

This characteristic can be clearly observed if a boat passes over the floating barrier and thus forces it into a horizontal position while being pushed down below the water surface.

Once the boat has crossed the barrier, it will immediately assume its original position.

The various pockets 15 are not in atmospheric communication with each other and are thus independent of each other. If one pocket is damaged, the others still float, and furthermore, the spiral 11 in the damaged pocket holds the walls of this vertical so that the pollution barrier continues to function in its entirety.

Thus, these pollution barriers are easy to store, easy to put into the water, and they exhibit great safety in use.

They also have a great longitudinal agility, the pockets 15 being joined to each other by bands 14 of flexible material formed by bonding the inner walls 10a and 10b, and the helicoidal spirals 11 spanning only a small portion of the distance between two bands 14, i.e. the width of a pocket 15, and that the overpressure for flushing the pockets 15 is very low.

This longitudinal agility is independent of the dimensions of the pollution barrier, which means that pollution barriers can be produced where the distance from the top edge to the waterline is large, and whose longitudinal agility is very satisfactory (it is known that if one tries to increase the height above the water surface of such pollution barriers, provided with floating bodies flushed with compressed air or filled with a low density material, encounters the difficulty that the pollution barriers have a low longitudinal flexibility).

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1-5, the ballast chain is disposed between the two inner walls 10a and 10b. This has the advantage of separating the two walls from each other and thus facilitating the access of air as the barrier is rolled out and later when the barrier is inserted into the water, facilitating the removal of the air located below the pockets 15 and between the two walls 10a and 10b ; this is also appropriate, thereby removing the danger of chain attachment to the various objects present in the water.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 6, the chain is attached to the inner edge of the walls 10a and 10b by means of a ring 16 joining the walls 10a and 10b,

This embodiment does not present the advantages of the aforementioned embodiment, but can be used in such cases where these advantages are not necessary, e.g. when the pollution barriers have 9 1 A3A 1 7 small dimensions for placement in places where there is no danger of chain attachment.

In all these exemplary embodiments, the zones 14 bonded together have a width of 40 mm and a height of 350 mm and a distance of 400 mm from each other; the height of the spirals is 250 mm and their diameter is 220 mm and the height of the portion of the walls 10a and 10b located below the pockets 15 is 350 mm.

In these embodiments, the mechanical means for flushing and retaining the shape of the pockets may expand and consist of helicoidal coils (it should be noted, moreover, that these helicoidal coils are used by twisting the individual turns and not by stretching or compressing those, as they are commonly used), but other expandable mechanical means can also be used to unfold the pockets and maintain their shape.

It is also possible to use mechanical means which cannot expand, such as e.g. rings placed on top of each other and attached together to. the inner wall 10a and to the inner wall 10b at diametrically opposite points. In this case, the barrier cannot be flattened and placed at a low volume, but nevertheless it has all the previously described intended properties of the pollution barriers, according to the invention, which means that it can advantageously be used in numerous cases.

Instead of colliding with the lower edges of the walls 10a and 10b, as shown in the previously described embodiments, the lower edge of one of the walls may be placed higher than the lower edge of the other wall. In this case, the chain (or any other ballast body) is attached to this last wall and guided appreciably toward the vertical plane passing through the axes of the spirals, i. the longitudinal plane of symmetry of the pockets, of straps on one side attached to the wall supporting the chain and on the other side attached to the other wall near a pocket, e.g. in the places opposite the helicoidal spirals. In this case, the two walls are not attached to each other.

Claims (4)

10 143417 Patent Claims. 1. A liquid barrier for the collection of contaminants in marine, river and lake areas and consisting of a flexible curtain with floating bodies at one edge and ballast bodies at the other edge of the curtain to keep the curtain substantially vertical in the water, characterized by: the floating bodies are in downward opening pockets (15) formed by folding one part (10a) of the curtain against at least one part (10b) of the other curtain and by gluing the folded parts (10a, 10b) at appropriate intervals along the substantially perpendicular to the fold line and from this only seams (14) extending in the width of the fold, and that the two parts (10a, 10b) of the curtain under the pockets (15), preferably along at least one of the The edge of the folded parts is joined by means of connecting means (16, 17) in which ballast bodies can be secured. Liquid barrier according to claim 1, wherein the pockets (15) are provided with expandable means (11) adapted to flush out the pockets and hold them in an air-filled state during the laying, characterized in that the expandable members are screw-wound spring elements (11). ), the axis of which in the expanded state is parallel to the height of the pockets and whose single turns are against the side walls (10a, 10b) and are pivotally connected to one of the side walls (10b). Liquid barrier according to claim 1, characterized in that one part of the curtain (10a, 10b) extends a considerable distance past said connecting means (16, 17). Liquid barrier according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the ballast bodies are a long chain (21) extending throughout the length of the curtain and that the connecting means (16, 17) each extend through one of the links of the chain.