EP3228812A1 - Cleaning device for cleaning an underwater ground processing device and method - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for processing a body of water and a cleaning device for cleaning an underwater tillage implement (20). The cleaning device in this case has an enclosing body (40), which extends substantially from a body of water (5) to above the surface of the water (7) and encloses an interior space along which the cultivator (20) is adjustable, and a separating device (32) in which an upper portion of the interior space (34) is separable in the enclosure body (40) to form a cleaning area (42) in which the soil cultivator (20) is receivable and cleanable of debris.

Description

The invention relates to a cleaning device for cleaning an underwater soil cultivation device, according to the preamble of claim 1.

The invention further relates to a method for processing a body of water, in which a submarine tillage implement is lowered from a floating work platform, the soil is treated on the bottom of the water with the harrow and then the tillage equipment is retrieved back to the work platform, according to the preamble of the claim 12th

In certain cases, it is necessary to carry out founding measures, in particular for structures under water. Such measures may be required, for example, in the construction of bridges, port facilities or in the founding of wind turbines or tidal turbines. The waters can be a river, a lake or a sea.

When creating an underwater foundation soil is removed by means of an underwater tillage implement to create about a hole for the foundation element. For reasons of environmental protection, it may be required to limit pollution of the water by ablated soil material and possibly also by supplied binder.

From the DE 10 2008 056262 B4 are known a device and a method for foundation measures under water, with a drilling site at the river bottom a bell-shaped container is arranged. During drilling boring cuttings can be received in the interior of the bell-shaped container and discharged from there by means of a pumping device to the surface of the water. By this measure, a significant relief of the water in the implementation of underwater foundations can already be achieved.

When working in particularly sensitive areas, such as nature reserves, or in areas where the riverbed is contaminated with pollutants, a further reduction in environmental impact is desirable.

The invention has for its object to provide a device and a method with which the creation of underwater foundations is particularly environmentally friendly.

The invention is achieved on the one hand with a cleaning device for cleaning an underwater tillage implement with the features of claim 1 and on the other hand with a method for processing a riverbed according to the features of claim 12. Preferred embodiments of the invention are given in the respective dependent claims.

According to the invention, there is provided a cleaning device for cleaning an underwater cultivator, comprising an enclosing body which extends substantially from a body of water to above a water surface and encloses an interior space along which the cultivator is adjustable, and a separator through which in the Umschließungskörper an upper portion of the interior is separable to form a cleaning area in which the harrow is receivable and cleanable of contaminants.

The invention is based on the finding that a load on the body of water is not only carried out directly by removed soil material from the processing site. A significant load on the water can be done by the underwater tillage device itself, if this is retrieved after tillage by the waterbody again. Usually, the soil cultivator is contaminated on its outside by tillage with abraded soil material and / or supplied binder. When returning Through the water, this pollution can be rinsed off and thus contaminate the surrounding waters. This applies, for example, if a treatment of a river bed takes place in a harbor area in which pollutants have been deposited on the riverbed for a long time. Corresponding problems may also be present in particular with waters with radioactive deposits or with undersea landfills.

According to the invention, contamination of the body of water is avoided by providing an enclosing body which extends from the processing site at the body of water to above the surface of the body of water. The rohroder box-like Umschließungskörper thus prevents contaminated particles from the tillage device can flow out and get into the surrounding free waters. Further, according to the invention, a separator is provided on the enclosing body, and an upper portion of the inner space of the enclosing body is separable to form a cleaning area. In this cleaning area, the soil cultivator can be cleaned, so be freed of adhering dirt. The processing unit can be cleaned so available for a new treatment on the river bottom, without that when repeatedly lowering the tillage equipment on the bottom of the water adhering contaminants are entered into the water. The cleaned impurities remain in the enclosing body and in particular in the separated cleaning area, from which the contaminants can be removed relatively easily.

The enclosing body can basically be a tubular body or a box-like element, by which an interior can be enclosed. A preferred embodiment of the invention is that the enclosing body has a Teleskopierabschnitt with which a length of the Umschließungskörpers is changeable. Thus, the Umschließungskörper can be adapted to different depths. The telescoping section may in particular consist of a plurality of ring-like elements which are telescopically displaceable in the manner of a telescope. It is not absolutely necessary that the Umschließungskörper is completely sealed against the surrounding water. Rather, it is provided in a preferred manner that within the Umschließungskörpers to Forming a pressure equalization is given the same water level, as outside the enclosure body. For this purpose, one or more passages are provided on the enclosing body. However, the individual elements of the Umschließungskörpers are so dense that no significant pollution from the interior of the Umschließungskörpers can penetrate out into the surrounding water.

A particularly dense placement of the enclosing body on the bottom of the water is achieved according to a development of the invention in that a flexible attachment area is provided for placing the enclosing body on the body of water. For this purpose, rubber elements or inflatable tube elements may be provided in particular. Also other adjustable or adaptable to the riverbed elements can be arranged at the bottom of the Umschließungskörpers.

To remove contaminants from the interior of the enclosing body, it is advantageous according to a variant that at least one pumping device for pumping out water from the interior is arranged. In this case, a pumping device may preferably be provided in the region of the processing point.

According to a development of the invention, it is particularly preferred for at least one pumping device to be arranged in the cleaning area. By means of this pumping device in the cleaning area, the dirt accumulating during cleaning can be pumped directly out of the interior. The contaminants can be taken up in tanks or filtered out by a corresponding wastewater treatment or separated in any other way, so that the water can be recycled or at least used as process water elsewhere.

For separating the cleaning area from the rest of the interior of the enclosing body, various elements may be provided. In a simple variant, one or more flexible partition plates, preferably made of a rubber or plastic material, elastically adjustable form a parting plane. By means of these elastic horizontal elements, the soil cultivating device can then be moved to the bottom of the water and then withdrawn again become. When pulling back the individual elastic separating elements return to their closed position, so that the cleaning area is separated from the lower interior of the hollow body.

A particularly advantageous embodiment of the invention consists in that the separating device has at least one pivotally mounted separating plate, which is pivotable between a lateral opening position and a separating position, in which the separating flap shuts off the upper cleaning region from the lower interior of the enclosing body. Preferably, a plurality of separating flaps may be present, which are moved similar to a trap door. Preferably, the separation flap is formed as an arcuate element.

In principle, the at least one separating flap can be actuated by hand or via a motor which is preferably located outside the water body, for example by means of a cable pull mechanism. According to a variant embodiment of the invention, it is particularly expedient that the at least one separating flap can be adjusted by means of at least one adjusting cylinder. The actuating cylinder is in particular a hydraulic cylinder, which can move the separating flap under water against relatively large resistances. Preferably, the actuating cylinder is arranged outside the water, wherein the separating flap can be moved via corresponding actuators or tension cables.

A cleaning of the dirty tillage implement in the cleaning area can be effected for example by hand by appropriate operating personnel, in particular by means of high-pressure radiator or pressure hoses. A particularly expedient embodiment of the invention is that a cleaning device is provided, which is designed to clean an outer side of the soil cultivation device of soil material. The cleaning device may in particular have one or more adjustable high-pressure nozzles, with which adhering contaminants are removed by spraying water from the harrow. The cleaning device may additionally or alternatively have cleaning brushes or other cleaning elements that automatically remove dirt from the outside of the soil cultivating device.

The invention further comprises an underwater tillage device for processing a water bottom, with a floating work platform and an underwater tillage implement, which can be lowered from the floating working platform for tillage to the bottom of the water. In this case, a cleaning device is arranged according to the invention on the floating work platform, as described above.

The work platform can be in particular a ship or a pontoon. The cleaning device is detachably mounted on one side of the floating work platform.

A particularly good protection of the environment is achieved according to a development of the invention in that on the work platform a system for receiving and / or treating polluted water is arranged, which is supplied from the interior of the cleaning device. Pumped, polluted water can be stored in receiving tanks in the simplest embodiment. In the tanks, dirt can sediment to the ground. Alternatively, an active cleaning of the polluted water is possible, such as by filtering devices or other devices for solid-liquid separation. In principle, a chemical treatment is alternatively or additionally feasible on the floating work platform.

Another preferred embodiment of the invention is that the harrow is a trench cutter or drill. The drill may be an endless screw drill or preferably a drill with a drilling bucket. Particularly advantageous is the use of a trench wall cutter, which preferably has two pairs of cutting wheels. It is particularly advantageous if a feed device for supplying binder is provided on the trench wall cutter in the region of the cutting wheels. Thus, with the trench wall cutter, a mixed-in-place process be carried out in which the milled slot remains the milled soil material and is immediately mixed by the cutter with a binder, in particular cement or a cement solution, so that from the binder and the Soil material is a solid foundation element created.

The method according to the invention is characterized in that a cleaning device is arranged, as has been described above, and that the tillage device with the cleaning device is cleaned of soiling when retrieving. This results in the advantages that have been described previously in connection with the cleaning device according to the invention.

According to a development of the method according to the invention, it is preferred that at least one foundation element is produced in the body of water. The foundation member may be a foundation pile, a foundation slotted wall member or a slit wall as a whole. The foundation element can generally serve for the foundation of a structure or for the stabilization of the ground.

Furthermore, an advantageous variant of the method according to the invention is that a hole is produced by removing soil material for forming the at least one foundation element, wherein in the hole the foundation element is formed by mixing a binder with at least a portion of the removed soil material. In such mixed-in-place method, despite the creation of the foundation element relatively little soil material discharged from the ground. Because a large part of the soil material, ideally the entire removed soil material, remains in the soil and forms with a supplied binder, the hardened foundation element. Such a method is also used as a CSM method (CSM is a registered trademark).

Fig. 1

eine schematische Draufsicht auf eine erfindungsgemäße UnterwasserBodenbearbeitungsvorrichtung;

Fig. 2

eine schematische Teilseitenansicht einer erfindungsgemäßen Unterwasser-Bodenbearbeitungsvorrichtung;

Fig. 3

eine Seitenansicht einer erfindungsgemäßen Reinigungsvorrichtung;

Fig. 4

eine teilgeschnittene Seitenansicht der Reinigungsvorrichtung von Fig. 3;

Fig. 5

eine Draufsicht auf die Reinigungsvorrichtung von Fig. 3 und Fig. 4;

Fig. 6

eine schematische Seitenansicht einer Trenneinrichtung;

Fig. 7

eine weitere schematische Seitenansicht einer Trenneinrichtung; und

Fig. 8

eine perspektivische Ansicht der Trenneinrichtung von Fig. 6.

The invention will be further elucidated on the basis of preferred exemplary embodiments, which are illustrated schematically in the drawings. In the drawings show:

Fig. 1

a schematic plan view of an underwater soil cultivation device according to the invention;

Fig. 2

a schematic partial side view of an underwater tillage device according to the invention;

Fig. 3

a side view of a cleaning device according to the invention;

Fig. 4

a partially sectioned side view of the cleaning device of Fig. 3 ;

Fig. 5

a plan view of the cleaning device of FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 ;

Fig. 6

a schematic side view of a separator;

Fig. 7

another schematic side view of a separator; and

Fig. 8

a perspective view of the separator of Fig. 6 ,

An underwater tillage device 10 according to the invention Fig. 1 has an approximately rectangular pontoon-like, buoyant working platform 12, on which a harrow 20 is arranged movable. Along a working area of the cultivator 20, a box-like cleaning device 30 is adjustably mounted, which extends from the working platform 12 to a body of water. From the cleaning device 30 polluted water, as indicated schematically by arrows, are passed to a system 16 with a receiving tank 17. In the receiving tank 17, particulate solids may sediment to the bottom of the receiving tank 17. For further treatment and purification of the water, this can be pumped from the receiving tank 17 to a treatment device 18. The treatment device 18 may be a filter system or another cleaning system for separating solid particles and pollutants from the water. In the illustrated embodiment, the purified water can be conveyed back into the water on which the platform 12 floats.

According to Fig. 2 a further underwater tillage device 10 according to the invention is shown with a floating on a body of water 3 working platform 12. At the pontoon-type work platform 12, a cleaning device 30 with a box-like enclosing body 40 is mounted laterally displaceable vertically along a guide 13 via sliding blocks 14. The box-shaped enclosing body 40 of the cleaning device 30 extends from an area above the water surface 7 to a body of water 5. The enclosing body 40 encloses an interior space 34 and separates it substantially tightly from the surrounding body of water 3. In an upper area of the interior space 34, a cleaning area 42 is provided, which is separated from the lower area of the interior space 34 via a separating device 32 with a separating flap 36, which can be actuated via an actuating cylinder 38. The lower region of the enclosing body 40 widens conically as far as an attachment region 46 which is flexible, for example with a bellows, for adaptation to the surface of the body of the water 5.

On the surface of the working platform 12, an underwater cultivator 20 is arranged, which consists of a substantially conventional carrier device 22 with crawler track and rotatable superstructure. About a support cable is a milling machine 24 with two pairs of cutting wheels 26 arranged vertically adjustable as the actual Bodenabtragswerkzeug.

For processing the body of water 5 within the enclosing body 40, the mill 24 is lowered to the bottom of the river 5 and can mill in this. To form a foundation element, the milled soil material can be mixed with a supplied binder in situ. The binder-soil mixture thus prepared can cure into a foundation element. In the working position of the milling cutter 24 in the bottom of the river 5, the separating flap 36 is moved via the adjusting cylinder 38 into an open position, so that the milling cutter 24 is freely axially adjustable. After retrieving the mill 26 in the upper cleaning region 42 of the Umschließungskörpers 40, the separation flap 36 is moved by means of the adjusting cylinder 38 in a substantially horizontal, slightly oblique closing position. In this closed position, the upper cleaning region 42 is largely sealed off from the lower interior 34 of the enclosing body 40. In the cleaning region 42, the outer side of the milling cutter 26 can be freed from soiling, in particular from adhering binder and soil material, by means of cleaning nozzles only schematically illustrated by an arrow. The cleaning device may in particular be high-pressure nozzles, which are preferably actuated automatically or by hand. Detached contaminants sediment in the lower region of the cleaning region 42. At the lowest point, a pumping device 50 is arranged, with which the settled contaminants are discharged to the system 16 on the work platform 12 for further treatment.

About the adjustable guide 13, the box-shaped cleaning device 30 can be adjusted along the outside of the working platform 12 so that it can take different working positions, as by the arrangement of a second cleaning device 30 in Fig. 2 is indicated schematically.

An embodiment of a cleaning device 30 according to the invention is in the FIGS. 3 to 5 shown. The cleaning device 30 comprises a box-like, rectangular enclosing body 40 which encloses a corresponding inner space 34. In addition to a fixed upper area, which forms the cleaning area 42, the enclosing body 40 has a lower telescoping portion 44. The Teleskopierabschnitt 44 is formed of a plurality of ring segments 45 which are axially adjustable relative to each other so as to effect a length adjustment to different depths. An underside of the enclosing body 40 is formed by a flexible top portion 46 of rubber or plastic elements, which can be adapted to a topography of the body of water.

The upper cleaning region 42 can be separated from the lower interior 34 by a separating device 32 with an arcuate separating flap 36. In the separated position, a cleaning of the soil cultivating device 20 can take place in the cleaning area 42, with detached dirt particles remaining in the upper cleaning area 42 and being able to be removed therefrom.

In the FIGS. 6 to 8 is a possible embodiment of a separator 32 for separating the cleaning region 42 in the interior 34 illustrates. The separating device 32 in this case has a blade-like separating flap 36, which is pivotably articulated via a lever arm 37 to the enclosing body 40. The lever arm 37 is connected via a pivot joint 39 with an upper end of the separation flap 36.

Fig. 6 shows an opening position of the partition flap 36, wherein a pivot cylinder 38 is retracted. By extending the swing cylinder 38, the separation flap 36 is pivoted about the pivot joint 39 on the lever arm 37 in a closed position, which in Fig. 8 is shown. Thus, a cleaning area 42 is separated from the remaining interior 34 into the enclosing body 40.

Claims (14)

Cleaning device for cleaning an underwater tillage implement (20), with - An enclosing body (40), which extends substantially from a body of water (5) to above a water surface (7) and encloses an interior space along which the harrow (20) is adjustable, and - A separating device (32) through which in the Umschließungskörper (40) an upper portion of the inner space (34) for forming a cleaning area (42) is separable, in which the soil cultivation device (20) is receivable and can be cleaned of contaminants. Cleaning device according to claim 1,
characterized,
in that the enclosing body (40) has a telescoping section (44) with which a length of the enclosing body (40) can be changed. Cleaning device according to claim 1 or 2,
characterized,
that a flexible attachment portion (46) for seating the Umschließungskörpers (40) on the seabed (5) is provided. Cleaning device according to one of claims 1 to 3,
characterized,
in that at least one pumping device (50) for pumping out water from the interior space (34) is arranged. Cleaning device according to claim 4,
characterized,
in that at least one pump device (34) is arranged in the cleaning area (42). Cleaning device according to one of claims 1 to 5,
characterized,
that the separation device (32) comprises at least one pivotally mounted partition flap (36) which can be pivoted between a lateral opening position and a separating position in which the partition flap (36) the upper cleaning region (42) of the lower inner space (34) of the Umschließungskörpers ( 40). Cleaning device according to claim 6,
characterized,
the at least one partition flap (36) is adjustable by means of at least one actuating cylinder (38). Cleaning device according to one of claims 1 to 7,
characterized,
that a cleaning device is provided, which is designed for cleaning an exterior of the soil cultivation device (20) from ground material. Underwater soil cultivation device for processing a body of water (5), with - a floating work platform (12) and - An underwater tillage device (20), which is lowered from the floating working platform (12) for tillage on the body of water (5), characterized,
in that a cleaning device (30) according to one of claims 1 to 8 is arranged on the floating work platform (12). Underwater soil tillage device according to claim 9,
characterized,
in that a plant (16) for receiving and / or treating polluted water, which is supplied from the interior (34) of the cleaning device (30), is arranged on the work platform (12). Underwater soil cultivation device according to claim 9 or 10,
characterized,
that the soil conditioner implement (20) is a slotted wall milling cutter or a drill. Method for processing a body of water (5), in which a subsea tillage implement (20) is lowered by a floating work platform (12), - The soil at the body of water (5) is processed with the harrow (20) and - Then the tillage device (20) is retrieved back to the work platform (12), characterized,
in that a cleaning device (30) according to one of claims 1 to 8 is arranged, and
that when retrieving the tillage device (20) with the cleaning device (30) is cleaned of dirt. Method according to claim 12,
characterized,
in that at least one foundation element is produced in the body of water (5). Method according to claim 13,
characterized,
in that for forming the at least one foundation element a hole is produced by removing soil material, wherein in the hole the foundation element is formed by mixing a binder with at least a part of the removed soil material.

Images