US3473500A

US3473500A - Support for echo sounders

Info

Publication number: US3473500A
Application number: US707372A
Authority: US
Inventors: Hans Kietz; Karl Emil Johannsen
Original assignee: Fried Krupp AG
Current assignee: Fried Krupp AG
Priority date: 1967-02-08
Filing date: 1968-02-08
Publication date: 1969-10-21
Anticipated expiration: 1986-10-21
Also published as: DE1506161A1; DE1506161C3; DE1506161B2; FR1553437A; NL6801598A

Description

Oct. 21, 1969 K|ETZ ET AL SUPPORT FOR ECHO SOUNDEES Filed Feb. 8, 1968 Fig. l

INVENTORS.

Hons Kierz Karl Emil Johunnsen BY $1M ATTORNEYS.

United States Patent 3,473,500 SUPPORT FOR ECHO SOUNDERS Hans Kietz, Bremen, and Karl Emil Johannsen, Hamburg, Germany, assignors to Krupp Fried. Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Essen, Germany Filed Feb. 8, 1968, Ser. No. 707,372 (Filed under Rule 47(a) and 35 U.S.C. 116) Claims priority, application Germany, Feb. 8, 1967,

Int. Cl. B63b 3 5/00, 43/04 US. Cl. 114-.5 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Support apparatus for a plurality of echo sounders used for mapping the contour of the floor of a body of water. The support apparatus includes outriggers, along which the echo sounders are disposed, which are connected to a surface ship and which, in their operational position, extend out from the ship transversely to the direction in which the ship is moving.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to support apparatus for a plurality of echo sounders used to map the contour of the floor of a body of water and, more particularly, to support apparatus having outriggers along which the echo sounders are disposed. The outriggers, according to the invention, are connected to a ship. In their operational position, the outrig ers are disposed transversely to the direction in which the ship is moving.

Heretofore, it has been the practice in the art to mount the support apparatus for echo sounders above the surface of the water the floor of which is being mapped. Such an arrangement provides outriggers which extend out from the ship but the support apparatus 'of which are at all operational times above the surface of the water. The echo sounders are attached to holders provided on the support part. The holders reach into the water from the support apparatus above the surface of the water. structurally, the support apparatus, according to this arrangement, are partially supported by swivel bearings on the ship and partially by one or a plurality of floats in the water. In order that such a support will be able to absorb the various dynamic forces acting on it, and particularly on those portions of its body which are submerged when the ship is moving, the floats must be relatively large. This results in the rather significant disadvantage that the vessel, which is usually small, carrying the supporting apparatus with the echo sounders can hardly produce the necessary power to attain the required speed for the surveying trip.

The outriggers, according to the prior art, are not only pivotally mounted around a vertical axis bearing on the ship, but are also provided with a joint having a horizontal axis in the body of the outrigger itself. Such a construction enables the outriggers together with its supporting floats to maintain its extended, relatively horizontal, position when the ship is rolling. Under this arrangement the depth to which the echo sounders are submerged is determined solely by the floats. This arrangement presents some problems, due to the fact that the echo sounders require depth adjustments to be accurate to within :5 cm.

It was for a long time believed that accurate depth adjustments could only be achieved by floats. However, advances have been made in the support apparatus art which have proved otherwise. In one support apparatus construction which does not rely on the use of floats,

3,473,500v Patented Oct. 21, 1969 outriggers are provided which are so positioned that they glide through the water and are so disposed that dynamic downward-pulling forces which result on the outriggers are absorbed by a cable extending upwardly at an angle from the vicinity of the end of each to an auxiliary mast on the ship. This construction has proved effective and has served to render superfluous the use of floats. In this construction, as in previous constructions, a joint is provided in the outrigger itself in addition to the joint where each outrigger joins the ship. This additional joint is horizontally disposed. The reason for providing the additional joint in each outrigger is to prevent the rolling motion of the ship from being transmitted to the outriggers. Thus, the outriggers according to this construction are restricted in their movement in a downward direction by the cable but are free to move in an upward direction. When the ship is at a standstill, the weight of each outrigger itself will function to hold the outrigger in a lower position, the limit of which is determined by the cable. When the ship is moving, the dynamic downward-pulling forces serve to hold the outriggers in this lower position.

With regard to the horizontal joint provided in the outriggers, which has for its purpose to prevent the rolling movements of the ship from being transferred to the outriggers, it should be noted that this particular feature of the construction has the important drawback that the vertical position of the ends of the outriggers nearest the ship is not sufliciently guaranteed. In order to avoid this drawback, the present invention was devised.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a relatively simple support apparatus to avoid the drawbacks mentioned in the preceding discussion.

Accordingly, the present invention proposes to construct outriggers which are entirely under water and serve, essentially, as underwater floats. These outriggers are rigidly connected to the ship. The outriggers of the invention are so constructed that they have generally tear-shaped cross sections. Thus configured, the outriggers will have only small upwardor downward-pulling forces.

While it may appear that the outriggers constructed ac cording to such a fashion would not be able to withstand the loads to which they might be subjected, it should be noted that the surveying of the depth of rivers is usually and most advantageously conducted under circumstances when the water in the rivers is relatively calm. The outriggers are, in their operational position, disposed transversely to the direction in which the ship is moving and are rigidly connected to the ship and, therefore, are decreasing strongly any rolling movement of the ship. The rolling movement during the surveying procedure is so small that there is no disadvantage by the fact that the position of the inventive construction is only defined by the position of the ship. Moreover it is not likely that the outriggers would be overloaded or taxed to a breaking point.

The depth to which the outriggers are maintained can be controlled with the assistance of markers provided near their ends. These markers or gauges can also be marked to indicate the static equilibrium of the nonmoving ship. Static equilibrium can be adjusted by effecting rearrangemeants in the ships ballast, for example, by pumping water from one ballast chamber to another.

With regard to the tear-shaped cross-sectional configuration of the outrigger arms, it should be noted that such a configuration reduces the flow resistance of the water so that the ship can be propelled through the water with a relatively small additional amount of power being required.

The outriggers, pivotally connected to the ship around a vertical shaft can be moved alternatively between an operational position in which they are disposed transversely to the direction in which the ship is moving and a nonoperational position alongside the ship in a position generally aligned with the longitudinal axis of the ship. Thus when the underwater surveying expedition is completed or when the ship must move around obstacles in the water, the outriggers can be brought to their nonoperational positions and back to an operational position when the echo sounders are to be employed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIGURE 1 is a diagrammatic transverse sectional view of a ship having apparatus according to the invention.

FIGURE 2 is a diagrammatic bottom view of a portion of the ship showing the apparatus according to the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring to both FIGURES 1 and 2, illustrated there is the support apparatus according to the invention.

The ship 1 is provided with one outrigger 4 on each of its sides, the portside 2 and the starboard side 3. Each of the outriggers 4 is pivotally connected to ship 1 so as to pivot about a vertical axis 5. Thus, each of the outriggers 4 may be moved, pivotally, either to an operational position, as shown on side 3 of ship 1, which position lies transversely to the direction in which ship 1 is traveling, which direction is indicated by the arrow 6, or, in the alternative, to a non-operational position, as shown on side 2 of ship 1, in which it is disposed alongside the ship 1.

A plurality of echo sounders 7 are disposed on the outriggers 4 and along the bottom of the ship 1. The echo sounders 7 are spaced at equal distances from each other and are arranged in such a manner that they form a straight line when the outriggers 4 are in their operational positions. With the aid of each individual echo sounder 7, the depth of the floor 8 of a body of water is registered at the corresponding point on an indicator associated with the echo sounder 7. In a known manner, a moving ship 1 and can thus chart the contour and map the floor 8 of a particular body of water.

The outriggers 4 comprise substantially straight beams each having a tear-shaped cross section 9 as best seen on the port side 2 of FIGURE 1. The beams are hollow and are so constructed that they are subjected to a relatively low static downward or upward pull.

Practical tests have shown that the amount of static downward or upward pull is not critical and can be a matter of selection depending on considerations of construction.

By using a small distortion of the normally horizontal situated tear-shaped cross section 9, the two outriggers 4 con be subjected to very little downward or upward pull when the ship 1 drives the outrigger 4 through the water or when water flows past the outrigger 4.

The slope of the cross section 9 is selected so that the dynamic forces will be nearly the same for the two outriggers on both sides of the ship. According to the tearshaped cross section the dynamic forces which occur during operation of such outriggers do not have the significance which has thus far generally been attributed to them. It would also be possible to select the slope of the angle of the cross section 9 so that small dynamic upwardpulling forces would result at each outrigger 4.

Each outrigger 4 is rigidly connected to a connecting means 18 and is pivotally mounted with respect to a pivot means 5. The pivot means is rotatably, but not displaceably, mounted in outboard bearings 10 and is provided with an arm 11 to which is connected a piston rod 12. The piston rod 12 is operated by, for example, a pneumatic linear piston drive apparatus 19, provided for each outrigger 4. Each piston drive apparatus 19 has a pressure cylinder 13 which is mounted on the ship 1 to pivot around a shaft 14. Each piston drive apparatus 19 can move its corresponding outrigger 4 from the operational position to the nonoperational position and vice versa.

An end marker 15 in the form of a vertical element with respect to the relatively horizontal outriggers 4 is located near the end of each outrigger 4. This end marker 15 indicates the position of the outer end of each outrigger 4. Moreover, the end marker 15 is provided with a gauge element 16. When each outrigger 4 is properly positioned horizontally, for operating the echo sounders 7, the gauge element 16 of each outrigger 4 is barely beneath the surface of the water 17. The static and the dynamic equilibrium of the outriggers 4 can thus be monitored and controlled before and during a surveying trip.

It will be understood that the above description of the present invention is susceptible to various modifications. changes and adaptations.

What is claimed is:

1. In apparatus for conducting undersea explorations from a surface ship by the use of echo sounders, support apparatus for said sounders comprising, in combination:

(a) a pair of outriggers, one on each side of a ship;

(b) each of said outriggers, in its operational position, being oriented horizontally and being located beneath the surface of the water and extending transverse to the direction in which such ship is intended to move;

(c) means for connecting said outrigger to such ship;

and

(d) a plurality of transversely spaced-apart eChO sounding means provided on said outriggers and on said ships bottom for sending and receiving depth measuring signals to the bottom of a body of water.

2. Apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein the means for connecting the outrigger of the support apparatus of such ship includes:

(a) means for pivotally connecting said outrigger thereto on the outer side of the ship about a generally vertical axis;

(b) means for moving said outriggers about said piv otal connecting means whereby said outriggers may be moved from a nonoperational position adjacen'. to, but outside of, the side of the ship substantively aligned with the horizontal axis of such ship to said operational position which is transverse to the direction in which such ship is moving.

3. Apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein each of said outriggers has a generally tear-shaped cross sectional means for substantially equalizing the vertical upward and downward pulling forces acting on the outriggers during their passage through the water.

4. Apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein each of said outriggers has an end-marking means, said end-marking means further including means for indicating the depth beneath the surface of the water at which said outriggers are located.

5. Apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein, when said outriggers are in operational position, said echo sounding means on said outriggers and said echo sounding means on said ships bottom are in alignment with each other.

6. Apparatus for conducting undersea explorations from a surface ship by the use of echo sounders, comprising, in combination:

(a) a ship having a substantially imperforate sheath defining the outermost side regions of its hull;

(b) two outriggers extending horizontally from the outer sides of said substantially imperforate sheath;

(c) means mounting said outriggers on the outer sides of said sheath means for movement from the horizontally extending position to positions adjacent to the respective outer sides of the sheath; and

(d) a plurality of echo sounding means arranged on 5 d and extending along the lengths of said Outriggers References Cited and mounted in a position for sending and receiving UNITED STATES PATENTS depth measuring signals to the bottom of a body of water when said Outriggers are in their respective 2,022,038 11/1935 Hfmht 116*27 horizontally extending positions 2,346,391 4/1944 Pitou et a]. 1140.5 X a 5 036 540 5/1962 Gre or 114-126 7. Apparatus as defined 1n clann 6 in which the outa rigger mounting means include a vertically arranged pivot TRYGVE BLIX Primary Examiner and means mounting the outrigger for movement about said pivot from its said extended position to its said ad- US, Cl, X R

jacent position. 10 114126; 116-27 3 3 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE 0F CORRECTIQN Patent N 3 473 500 Dated October 21st 1969 Inventor(s HANS KIETZ and KARL EMIL JOHANNSEN It is certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

Column 1, line 4, change "Krupp Fried." to -Fried. Krupp.

Column 3 line 55 change "con" to -can SIGAED AH.) SEALED MAR 3 4970 Edwardlifletchmlrm IAII :0 m Attestmg Officer 23: 81 one, of t;