2539results about "Groynes" patented technology

An apparatus and method for providing electrical energy to an electrical device by deriving the electrical energy from motion of the device. In one embodiment, the inventive apparatus includes a novel kinetic electrical power generator (KEPG) consisting of an inventive oscillating weight having an internal cavity with a freely movable acceleration element disposed therein, resulting in improved acceleration and oscillation capabilities and lower motion threshold for the weight, a system for converting the weight's oscillating motion into rotational motion, and an electromechanical transducer system for generating electrical energy from the rotational motion. The novel KEPG includes components for modifying the electrical energy for storing and / or feeding the modified electrical energy to the electrical device. Optional components may be included for using the modified electrical energy to recharge one or more rechargeable batteries used in an electric device. Alternate advantageous embodiments of the inventive apparatus include, but are not limited to: a KEPG with multiple inventive oscillating weights to increase velocity and frequency of desirable rotational motion, and a KEPG system utilizing multiple electrically coupled KEPG sub-systems.

Provided are systems, methods and techniques by which a wind-powered energy generating platform, secured to an anchor, can pull (or winch) itself beneath the surface of the water and thereby avoid most of the significant effects of storms and waves. In more particularized aspects, a variable-buoyancy anchor is utilized, thereby facilitating the construction and transportation of the entire assembly.

Sediment control devices and systems are provided. The device generally includes a core made up of granular material encased within a puncture resistant fabric, a compressible layer enwrapping the core and a geotextile fabric outer casing. A plurality of such devices provide a system for controlling erosion and sedimentation.

A barrier for reducing erosion along shorelines includes a barrier body formed as a unitary, molded plastic structure. In one embodiment, the barrier body has at least one elongate passage extending through it, between oppositely disposed first and second sides, and an interior reservoir. A port formed into the barrier body communicates with the interior reservoir to facilitate filling the reservoir with material to thereby add weight to the barrier. The barrier further includes at least one anchor formed into a side of the barrier body and associated with the passage to control shrinkage of the barrier body as it is being molded. In another embodiment, a method of making the barrier body includes placing plastic material in a mold, manipulating the mold to distribute the plastic material within the mold and thereby form the barrier body as a unitary piece, and reducing the shrinkage of the molded barrier body with the anchor.

A modular unit intended for use as an artificial reef, marine habitat and / or sea wall which can be placed in stacked structures along the floor of an ocean, bay, or other body of water comprises a top wall, bottom wall, opposed side walls and opposed end walls which are interconnected to form a hollow interior. Each of the walls is formed with one or more openings whose position and size is designed to allow access of marine life into the interior of the units, permit the passage of sunlight therein, direct the flow of sea water into and through the units in a way which increases stability of the units when placed on the ocean floor, and permit alignment of the holes of one unit with those of another when stacked together.

A sediment control roll includes a threshold member having large apertures therethrough, a hollow sediment collection chamber, and an outflow filter having small apertures therethrough. The sediment control roll can be used to collect sediment in runoff from a construction site, or to reduce removal of sediment from an existing mass of soil, sand or other sediment. The sediment control roll can for example be made by rolling up extruded polymeric netting with filter cloth attached thereto.

A liquid crystal display (LCD) apparatus is divided into a display area on which an image is displayed and a non-display area surrounding the display area. The LCD apparatus includes an organic insulating layer partially formed in the non-display area. A portion of the organic insulating layer is not formed, obtaining a vent space through which to exhaust air trapped when a first substrate is combined with a second substrate of the liquid crystal display apparatus. The LCD apparatus may rapidly and easily exhaust the trapped air from the display area and uniformly maintain the cell gap between the first and second substrates, improving display quality of the LCD apparatus.

A device and method for stabilization of beaches and building walls, patios and similar simple structures consisting of blocks with trapezoidal or rectangular shapes which have staking or interlocking means of interconnecting blocks and where the top has an open area allowing fill by slurries of water and sand, gravel or clay and the escape of clarified water during and after filling.

A modular retaining wall with improved features is illustrated and described. Open or closed polygonal modules having channels disposed therein are set at least partially below a surface, said surface either being land-based or aqueous-based, and interfaces therebetween, e.g., shoreline, and attached to each other by respective fastening means which provide engaging connectivity between the modules.

The invention discloses a floating bulwark with a flexible structure. The floating bulwark with the flexible structure comprises multiple water surface wave absorbing structural units, an underwater wave absorbing structure and an anchoring system. Each water surface wave absorbing structural unit comprises at least two cylinder-shaped floating cylinders. Every two adjacent cylinder-shaped floating cylinders are connected through a connection column in a rigid mode. The underwater wave absorbing structure comprises a wave-proof net and wave-proof balls. The wave-proof net is arranged below the cylinder-shaped floating cylinders. All the water surface wave absorbing structural units are elastically connected through connecting devices. With the cylinder-shaped floating cylinder connection structures and especially the double-connection-cylinder structures, materials can be effectively saved or the width of the bulwark can be effectively increased. By absorbing wave energy on the water surface and below the water surface, facilities can work normally. The connection devices can connect all the modules into a whole to fight against waves and collision among all the modules can be avoided. A concave steel plate can facilitate replacement of an aged rubber ring. The anchoring system can ensure safety working of the floating bulwark under the action of the waves, and meanwhile, the floating bulwark can work normally in water zones where piling is not convenient.

A sediment control roll includes a threshold member having large apertures therethrough, a hollow sediment collection chamber, and an outflow filter having small apertures therethrough. The sediment control roll can be used to collect sediment in runoff from a construction site, or to reduce removal of sediment from an existing land mass. The sediment control roll can for example be made by rolling up extruded polymeric netting with filter cloth attached thereto.

The invention relates to the technical field of breakwater engineering and wave power generation, in particular to a floating breakwater generation device arranged in open sea. The floating breakwater generation device comprises floating members, air turbine generator sets, air chambers, airflow passages, mooring systems and signal transmission devices, and is characterized in that the floating members are respectively connected with concrete anchor blocks at the sea bottom through anchor chains; a plurality of wave dissipating perforations penetrating through a floating body are formed in the head-sea face of each floating member; the air turbine generator sets are respectively arranged in the airflow passages; the floating bodies are driven by waves to vertically move, so that water in the air chambers vibrates and air in the air chambers is pushed to move, and the air turbine generator sets are further driven to generate electricity. The floating breakwater generation device disclosed by the invention has the characteristics of being stable in structure, low in erection cost, high in generation conversion efficiency, convenient to maintain, and the like, and can be applied to sea areas with deep water, high waves and complex terrain; while wave impacts are weakened and a steady water area environment is provided for surrounding water areas, the waves can be converted into electric energy, and the electric power supply problem of harbor district or island residents is effectively solved.

A floating drive-on watercraft dock comprises a one-piece molded body defining a watercraft receiving area. The watercraft receiving area includes roller assemblies on the bottom of the watercraft receiving area and glide assemblies on the sides of the watercraft receiving area. The roller and glide assemblies can be easily removed and replaced for servicing of the watercraft dock. An extension unit is provided which can be connected to the watercraft dock body. The extension unit includes an extension body and a tongue extending from the extension body. The tongue is sized and shaped to have a bottom surface complementary to the entrance to the watercraft receiving area of the watercraft dock body. The extension unit also includes a watercraft receiving area, which, when the extension unit is connected to the watercraft dock, increases the length of the watercraft receiving area.

A floating breakwater assembly comprising an array of elongate rods articulated to one another for extending at a substantial vertical position at least partially submersed in water, wherein the rods are made of a flexible material and where the array is elastically deformable into an arcuate shape by bending the array.

An ice composite body (10) has an inner ice core (11) and a protective outer armour shell (12). The outer armour shell (12) consists of a base section (13), side sections (14) and a separate top section (15), which is free to move vertically between the side sections (14). The inner ice core (11) is maintained in a frozen condition in use by refrigeration pipes (21), which are located at various levels therethrough. The inner ice core (11) is built up from thin layers of ice which are frozen one after the other. Following the freezing of each layer of ice the layer is rolled using a roller apparatus which provides a roller pressure in the range of 3.5 to 8 Newtons / mm<2>. The ice composite body (10) can be used in warm or cool waters for applications such as bridges, breakwaters, causeways, pontoons, artificial islands, dams, tidal barrages, wave power barrages, harbour walls, wind power farms or aircraft runways.

The invention relates to a floating breaker, which comprises a floating box, wave weakening plates and an anchoring system. The more than one wave weaning plate is arranged at the bottom of the floating box in front and rear manner; a plurality of wave weakening holes are arranged on the wave weakening plates; the plurality of wave weakening holes are distributed in a staggered manner on the wave weakening plates arranged in front and rear manner; and the floating box is connected with the anchoring system. With the adoption of the floating breaker provided by the invention, the effect of weakening deep water wave energy is improved, the impact force on a wave weakening panel by waves is reduced, the weight of the integral floating breakwater and the impact force of the waves are reduced, and the security of a fixing anchoring system is promoted; when an anchor chain of the fixing anchoring system fractures or an anchor slips away, the protecting anchoring system is started immediately to play the role of protecting and fixing the anchor chain or the anchor; and if the anchor chain fractures or the anchor slips away again in the protecting anchoring system, a security anchor chain of a security anchoring system is started to automatically pull down a security door of the floating box, so that seawater flows in the floating box quickly, and the floating box sinks to the seabed. The floating breaker provided by the invention is safe and reliable and can substantially reduce the manufacturing cost of the whole engineering.

A large scale geotextile tube includes a plurality of shelves that extend across the width of the geotextile tube with each shelf formed of a web of geogrid material or geocell material. As one moves from the bottom of the geotextile tube to the top of the geotextile tube, the width of each shelf decreases. The geotextile tube can be surrounded by an envelope formed of geogrid material.

A process for the bonding of a plastics pipe to another plastics part by ultrasound welding using sound waves which act longitudinally with respect to the pipe axis, while the arrangement of the areas to be welded is substantially parallel to the pipe axis. The welding procedure is combined with the forced insertion of the other plastics part into the plastics pipe in such a way that there is at least some overlap between the exposure to sound and the forced insertion.

The present invention is directed to an irrigation device and irrigation system. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a weep or tear type irrigation device and irrigation system.

The invention discloses a semi-submersible type multifunctional jetty, comprising one or more semi-submersible type steel box bodies mutually connected together. The lower part of each box body is provided with an anchoring locating device, and a wave wall is arranged in the longitudinal direction at the upper part of the box body. The box body is internally provided with an intermediate deck dividing the box body into an upper layer and a lower layer, wherein the upper layer is a functional box, and the lower layer is a snorkeling box. The lower layer of the box body is provided with a snorkeling device, and one end part of the box body is also provided with a shore coupling device. The invention has the advantages that the adopted semi-submersible type jetty has low manufacturing cost, short construction period, convenient construction and safe use, can effectively prevent geological disasters and avoid the damage caused by earthquakes and surge, does not change the ocean attribute and can utilize a platform on the surface of the box body as a floating dock and a hydrophilic leisure and entertainment occasion for fishing and the like.

Provided are systems, methods and techniques by which a wind-powered energy generating platform, secured to an anchor, can pull (or winch) itself beneath the surface of the water and thereby avoid most of the significant effects of storms and waves. In more particularized aspects, a variable-buoyancy anchor is utilized, thereby facilitating the construction and transportation of the entire assembly.

A transportable wave suppressor and sediment collection (WSSC) system, including a method of installing same, the system installed to suppress wave action and provide land restoration along the shore of a body of water, such as a coastline, which includes a plurality of interconnected sections of the system, each section including a base, a forward wall, and a rear wall, having a plurality of fluid flow pipes extending from the forward wall to the rear wall, for allowing water including sediment to flow into the pipes at the forward wall and exit the pipes at the rear wall. There is further provided a one-way valve member at the rear wall exit of each pipe, so that water carrying sediment cannot return through the pipe as the wave action recedes from the coastline. There is provided a flow opening including a weir between multiple sections so that water can flow therethrough.

The invention discloses a perforated case type floating breakwater with a built-in buoyancy unit. The perforated case type floating breakwater comprises a perforated case structure, the buoyancy unit and anchoring devices; the buoyancy unit is arranged inside the perforated case structure, and the anchoring devices are symmetrically arranged on two sides of the perforated case structure; the perforated case structure comprises a plurality of porous rigid plates, rigid plates and rigid support columns, the porous rigid plates and the rigid plates are perpendicular to one another pairwise and are rigidly connected with one another to form the perforated case structure, and the rigid support columns are parallelly mounted at the bottom of the perforated case structure; the buoyancy unit comprises a plurality of rubber pieces, air is filled in each rubber piece, and the rubber pieces are arranged inside the lower half portion of the perforated case structure. The perforated case type floating breakwater has the advantages that stable and reliable buoyancy can be provided, so that accidents that the traditional case type floating breakwater is sunken into a seabed due to loss of buoyancy when cracks are formed in an outer structure of the traditional floating breakwater and water seeps into the traditional floating breakwater are prevented, materials are effectively saved, the cost is lowered, draft of the breakwater can be adjusted, a wave absorbing effect is improved, and the perforated case type floating breakwater can be applied to water areas where piling anchoring cannot be implemented.

A geotextile container and system for constructing a water barrier or dam is disclosed. A system for maintaining fill material solids in position to form a barrier comprises an elongated sheet of geotextile material capable of coiling upon itself to form a helical structure. Further, a means for seaming the first elongated sheet into a tubular container and filling the container with solids is presented. Fill material solids may be held in position by a tubular shaped container that forms a barrier or dam. An inner liner also may be employed in the tubular container. Cradle tubes may be deployed on either side to hold the container in position, such as when the container is struck by high energy waves.

A caisson breakwater provided with vertical duct 2″, room 3″, air-duct 4″, self-rectifying turbine 5″. Under the fluctuations of wave pressure on the outer opening 6, the water, alternately, enters and exits, so that the air in room 3″, alternately, is compressed and expands, and an alternate air flow is produced in the air-duct 4″. The vertical duct 2″ and the room 3′, form a U-conduit, and the air in the room 3″ acts as a spring. The eigenperiod of oscillations in said U-conduit grows as the width of the vertical duct 2″ is reduced and / or the length of said vertical duct is increased, and / or the width and height of the room 3″ is increased. The eigenperiod is fixed close to the wave period of the waves which convey the largest amount of wave energy in a year, so as to absorb a very large quantity of wave energy.

A device is provided for preventing shoreline erosion and for rebuilding the sand beach along the shoreline of a large body of water. A series of the devices are placed in side-by-side relation essentially parallel to the shoreline. The device includes a hollow plastic structure fillable with a heavy material, such as cement. The structure has a trapezoidal configuration to lower the center of gravity of the device and includes inclining front and rear walls converging toward each other to the top wall. The hollow plastic structure includes a plurality of tubular members extending from the front wall to the rear wall. The front and rear walls have access apertures opening to the tubular members. The tubular members gradually taper from a predetermined diameter at the access apertures in the front wall to half of the predetermined diameter at the access apertures in the rear wall to reduce the velocity of the flow of water to the large body of water.

Disclosed herein are an underwater docking system and a docking method using the system. An exemplary embodiment of the present invention relates to a system for docking a target body on a docking station under water, the system comprising: a guide unit provided to the docking station to transmit at least one guide signal to the target body; an agent unit connected to the docking station by a smart cable and disposed at a position spaced apart from the docking station so that the agent unit is moored under the water in a direction corresponding to a tidal current; and the target body configured to be guided toward the agent unit by the guide signal and then connected to a portion of the agent unit.

A sectionalized flood control barrier (10) for mounting on top of a levee or a river bank to prevent flooding. The barrier (10) consists of a footing (20) with a series of support channels (24) that are butted end to end attached to the footing. The support shells are sealed watertight at the interface with each other and also to the footing. A series of primary channel bridge assemblies (32) and secondary channel assemblies (46) are disposed within the support channels (24) and are also butted end to end. Wind protectors (60) contiguously engage each support channel (24) and rest upon the footing for diverting the wind over the barrier. Stepped fastening risers (62) are attached to the footing on each end and over the channel assemblies, and wind protectors hold them securely in place.

The present invention relates to a water movement device comprising a flexible wall (1) placed in water close to the surface, substantially vertically in a static rest state, made up of optionally perforated (5) massive unit blocks (4) assembled to one another in strings by cables (2, 3) on which said blocks (1) are threaded or on which said blocks are crimped, said cables comprising: a series of cables (2) disposed vertically (ZZ′) side by side, parallel to one another, and a second series of cables (3) disposed horizontally (XX′) one above another and in parallel, and said vertical cables (2) being suspended or tensioned at their top ends and / or respectively tensioned or moored at their bottom ends, and said blocks including empty orifices (5) passing through them between the front and rear faces (1-1, 1-2) of said wall (1), and / or empty spaces (7) between said blocks, such that said orifices (5) and / or empty spaces between said blocks (7), if any, confer overall porosity on said wall lying in the range 5% to 75%, preferably 20% to 45%, of the area of the vertical section of said wall.