RU2145561C1 - Method of transportation of ice blocks by ice carriers - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: water transport for transportation of solid cargoes having sizes identical to those of hold and weights close to its displacement. SUBSTANCE: transportation of ice blocks is effected by means of trimaran ice carrier. Ice blocks are placed in hold of center hull over its entire volume. Hold has double walls which perform function of heat insulator. Tight laying of ice blocks to walls and bottom of hold is secured by means of heating unit which thaws ice forming water which fills space between ice block and walls of hold; then water is frozen. EFFECT: enhanced safety of transportation of ice blocks. 4 cl, 3 dwg

Description

 The world fleet today does not have ships, the design of which allows for the transportation of solid cargo with almost identical cargo dimensions and weights close to its displacement. The need to transport such goods arose in connection with the development of technology for the delivery of ice from Antarctica, Greenland, Alaska to countries with a hot climate and lack of drinking water.

 The technical result of the invention is to develop a method of transporting ice bars with a sufficient degree of its safety, not allowing it to melt along the way, ensuring a snug fit of the beam to the walls of the hold, with weights and sizes up to values commensurate with the dimensions and displacement of the hold. The technical result is achieved by the fact that transportation is carried out by a vessel of a fundamentally new design, with the possibility of loading directly from the water into the hold, and for the possibility of which it is supplemented in the stern of the hold by gates, sides, hold of the slope, going into the depths of the sea at a distance equal to the depth of immersion of the ice beam , with two partitions, together with other features forming the loading compartment of the vessel, reinforced side hulls with marine engines, with the hold of the original design and, with refrigeration and heating installations, with heat-insulating double walls.

 This method ensures the delivery of ice in the form of large bars, which in cross section are equal to the cross section of the hold, and in length multiple times shorter than the length of the hold. The option is characterized by a minimum of costs for the preparation of the ice beam, its delivery to the vessel and its placement in the hold of the vessel.

 Ice cutting is carried out on an iceberg, ice shelf or other source of ice, providing the required dimensions of the ice bars. The cut bars are dumped into the sea and then, with the help of tugboats, are pulled up to the ice trimaran, which is located at some distance.

In FIG. 1 shows an ice transport vehicle;
in FIG. 2 is a diagram of loading an ice beam onto an ice transport vehicle; in FIG. 3 - placement of bars of ice in a transport vessel-ice carrier during transportation.

 Structurally, the vessel is a trimaran, since such a design provides the greatest stability, buoyancy and safety margin during loading and unloading and transportation of goods. The ship consists of three hulls. The middle hull 2 is designed for the transportation of bulky and massive cargo in a hold with double walls that perform the functions of a heat insulator. On the side hulls 1 and 3 are power equipment, fuel, pumps, ship engines. On the deck of the hull 2 there are winch drives 4, gear systems 5 for controlling the aft hold gates 6 and partitions 7 and 8. Slope 9 smooths the transition from the receiving compartment to the bottom of the vessel. The sides 10 and 11, elongated deep into the sea, form the side walls of the receiving compartment. In total, the aft hold doors 6, partitions 7, 8, hold slope 9, elongated sides 10, 11 form the loading compartment. Its design, consisting of the receiving and transit compartments, provides for water intake and placement in the hold of ice or other cargo in the water, the size and weight of which do not allow loading operations in the hold of the vessel by currently known technical means and methods. Aft hold gate 6, made in the form of several pairs of leaves or vertically lowering and rising plates, equal to the cross section of the receiving compartment of the loading compartment of the vessel. The transit compartment formed by the partitions ensures the reception, placement and transfer of an ice beam or cargo from the receiving compartment further into the hold and isolation of the hold from sea water during loading and unloading operations.

 Transport ship is used as follows. When crossing the sea to the source of raw materials - an iceberg, the vessel moves with hermetically sealed aft gates 6 and partitions 7 and 8, like a regular vessel. When the towed ice bar has been delivered to the loading place, and the tugboat has sailed for the next one, the operation of loading it into the hold of the hull 2 begins. Gate leaves 6 and the partition 7 open. The receiving compartment and the transit compartment are filled with water to sea level. The design and size of the receiving compartment are such that they provide reception and placement of ice intended for loading into the hold. The transit compartment after loading the hold may take the ice beam 16 for transportation. The trimaran, maneuvering the engines in the side hulls, floats with an open stern on the ice beam, until it completely fits in the receiving compartment. Next, the gate leaves 6 are closed and the outboard water is pumped into the loading compartment until its level raises the ice bar to a height at which the bar pulled by the winch does not float from the receiving compartment into the transit compartment. The bulkhead 7 is closed, the remaining water, if any, is pumped overboard. The hold gate 6 opens and the water level in the receiving compartment drops to sea level. Then the bulkhead 8 opens, and the beam with the help of winches is pulled into the hold of the vessel. Then the bulkhead 8 is lowered, isolating the hold from the receiving compartment, making it possible to proceed with the next loading operation. These loading operations are repeated until the vessel is fully loaded in several stages until the hold is filled with ice blocks 15.

 The design and overall dimensions of all three trimaran hulls provide and provide the necessary buoyancy of the vessel during depressurization of the receiving compartment and loading operations from the very beginning to the end. The side hulls, which in the usual classical trimaran designs performed an auxiliary role to increase the stability of the vessel during water waves, in this vessel, designed for loading, unloading multi-ton bars of ice or other loads and transporting them over long distances, became the main ones with their own power plants, the location of them on them gave the vessel exceptional maneuverability and allowed them to be loaded from water, and also significantly increased stability, buoyancy and cargo emnost vessel.

 The vessel should have a sufficiently powerful refrigeration unit to freeze the ice beam to the bottom and sides of the hold to exclude the possibility of its movement in the hold during transportation. The vessel also provides the possibility of using a thermal device or devices for melting ice. The resulting water will fill all the gaps between the ice and the wall, then it will freeze itself or be frozen and thus ensure a tight and reliable fit of the ice mass in the hold wall, which will ensure the safety of the vessel on the way. When freezing, the effect of water expansion during freezing is taken into account. A thermal device will also be needed to defrost the bottom and sides of the hold before unloading ice. Before transporting ice, various kinds of heat-insulating materials 14 are placed between the ice bars placed in the hold, which do not allow the ice bars to freeze among themselves, which facilitates the unloading problem.

 The features of the hold are: free space throughout its volume (with the possibility of establishing partitions to tighten the structure), double walls with the function of thermal insulation, walls (because the vessel will cross the tropics in warm ocean waters); the inner surface of the walls of the hold has a sufficient slip coefficient (to facilitate retraction of the beam, cargo in the hold back); the distance between the walls of the hold allows you to arrange between them all kinds of sensors and pipelines refrigeration 12 and heating plants 13.

Claims (4)

 1. A method of transporting ice bars by sea, characterized in that it is carried out by a trimaran ice transport boat, in the hold of the middle hull of which they are placed throughout the volume, the hold has double walls that act as a heat insulator.  2. The method according to p. 1, characterized in that the engines of the vessel are placed in the side hulls to increase the maneuverability of the vessel.  3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that they provide a snug fit of the ice bars to the walls and the bottom of the hold by applying a heat heater, which melt the ice, forming water, which fills the space between the ice beam and the walls of the hold, after which the water is frozen.  4. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that a refrigeration unit is used, which the ice bars are frozen in their places to increase the safety of the vessel.

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