80 results about "Negative buoyancy" patented technology

An automatic pool cleaner has a plurality of components, some of which have a density greater than water, giving the cleaner an overall negative buoyancy. The cleaner has a buoyant element which is adjustable in position relative to the center of gravity of the cleaner. Adjusting the position of the buoyant element changes the probable motion path of the cleaner on the pool floor and on the walls to allow the cleaner to execute a variety of motion paths to clean various parts of the pool. The adjustable element may be slidably positioned by a handle extending through a slot in the housing or be slidable on a slide band attached to the housing, which may be pivotable, translatable and rotatable, providing an additional range of position alternatives. A selected position is held by a detent or other holding mechanism. The adjustable element permits the cleaner to be adapted to clean various pool shapes and surfaces.

Utilisation of geothermal energy in depths above 5 km could contribute considerably to resolving the global problems related to a lack of energy and to glasshouse gases from fossil fuels. The invention describes innovative equipment which makes deep holes in geological formations (rock) by disintegrating the soil into blocks carried to the land surface through the excavated hole filled with liquid, using transport modules yielded up by gas buoyancy interaction in the transport module utilising supercavitation. In an opposite direction—by help of negative buoyancy—the necessary energy carriers, materials and components, or entire devices required for rock excavation, are carried to the bottom. The opportunity to transport rock in entire blocks reduces energy consumption considerably, because the rock is disintegrated in the section volumes only. Some of the extracted rock and material carried from the surface is used to make a casing of the hole using a part of the equipment. The equipment also allows the generation of the necessary high pressure of liquid at the bottom of the hole, to increase permeability of adjacent rock. The equipment as a whole allows by its function that there is almost linear dependence between the price and depth (length) of the produced hole (borehole).

A payload delivery unit for protecting and delivering a payload submerged in a submersion medium includes an unmanned buoy, a drop weight member, and a retention system. The buoy includes a container. The container includes a pressure-resistant shell defining a sealed containment chamber. The drop weight member is mounted on the shell and has a negative buoyancy with respect to the submersion medium. The retention system is operative to retain the drop weight member on the buoy and selectively release the drop weight member from the buoy.

An autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) for recording seismic signals during a marine seismic survey. The AUV (200) includes a body (204) having a flush shape; a buoyancy system (202) located inside the body and configured to control a buoyancy of the AUV while traveling underwater; a processor (108) connected to the buoyancy system and configured to select one of plural phases for the buoyancy system at different times of the seismic survey, wherein the plural phases include a neutral buoyancy, a positive buoyancy and a negative buoyancy; and a seismic sensor (110) for recording seismic signals.

This invention is directed toward a device which provides buoyancy to objects with negative buoyancy in water. The invention comprises a water-sensitive trigger which, when activated, causes a balloon to inflate, causing the object to float upon the surface where the user can then easily and safely retrieve it, through one of two mechanisms: first, a compressed gas is allowed to exit a canister and enter a balloon, second, one or more substances which, when mixed with water will produce bubbles are exposed to water and the balloon is filled with bubbles from the chemical reaction. There are a number of variable characteristics, including canister size and shape, trigger fuse length, balloon configuration, and housing material that allow a user tremendous flexibility in selecting a proper size of the invention for the user's intended purpose.

Embodiments described herein relate to an apparatus and method for deployment and retrieval of one or more seismic devices in a deep water marine environment. In one embodiment, a method for deploying and positioning ocean bottom equipment is described. The method includes attaching at least one article having a negative buoyancy to a support cable, lowering the at least one article into the water column from two or more points of suspension on a surface of the water column, at least one of the two or more points of suspension being movable relative to the other point of suspension, and manipulating tension of the support cable, length of the support cable, position of the support cable, and distance between the two or more points of suspension to cause the at least one article to fall to a bottom of the water column at a predetermined location on the bottom.

This invention is directed toward a device which provides buoyancy to objects with negative buoyancy in water. The invention comprises a water-sensitive trigger which, when activated, causes a compressed gas to exit a canister and enter a balloon, which expands, thereby causing the object to float, in cases where the device is attached to an item on a boat, or rise to the surface, in cases where the device is attached to a sunken object. There are a number of variable characteristics, including canister size, trigger fuse length, balloon configuration, and housing material that allow a user tremendous flexibility in selecting a proper size of the invention for the user's intended purpose. Other iterations of the invention provide breathing air for underwater purposes and means of keeping cars, boats, airplanes, etc., floating when they fall into water.

A multiphase-liquid level sensing system for sensing a layer depth and thickness of a liquid of a first phase that floats on a liquid of a different second phase includes an elongated stem that defines an elongated cavity. A float, which exhibits a sensible property, is disposed coaxially around the elongated stem and has negative buoyancy relative to the liquid of the first phase and positive buoyancy relative to the liquid of the second phase. A level sensor senses the sensible property and indicates a second phase liquid distance from the float to the bottom of the stem. An overburden sensor extends downwardly from the stem senses total liquid thickness of the liquid above the overburden sensor. A computational circuit calculates a layer depth and thickness of the liquid of the first phase, based on input from the level sensor and the overburden sensor.

A fishing lure for use as a top water lure having a construction of negative buoyancy. The lure has an elongated weighted body resembling a squid with angled channels defined in the top and bottom surfaces of the body. Upon the lure being retrieved by an angler, water gushes through one of the channels and splashes over and about the leading end of the lure, causing the lure to “swim” over the water surface with the trailing end submersed in the water. This presents the appearance of a fleeting baitfish. By careful selection of colors and reflective strips the lure will have an appearance that is very visually stimulating to game fish.

The system provides a means by which the attitude or orientation of a submerged object can be changed using a fixed quantity of transferable ballast fluid which has a density greater than that of the surrounding fluid in which the object is submerged. In one embodiment, the process utilizes a static flotation shell offset the net negative buoyancy of the transferable ballast fluid. In this way, the total overall buoyancy of the system does not change, but by transferring fluid into expandable reservoirs which are physically separated from the static flotation shell, the separation between the center of buoyancy and the center of mass of the object can be changed, and thus the attitude or orientation of the object, if it is unrestrained, may be changed.

A buoyancy compensator belt comprising a belt to which is mounted a tubular inflatable bladder positioned within a flexible housing and a small gas cylinder. In one embodiment, one or more weights are mounted onto the belt. A combination power inflation/bleed valve is operatively connected to the inflatable bladder and is fluidly connected to a first stage regulator of the gas cylinder by a hose. A dump valve is operatively connected to the bladder to prevent over-inflation and allow dumping of the air from the bladder. The buoyancy compensator belt is particularly suitable for use by free divers to allow the diver to rapidly descend to the desired depth due to the negative buoyancy produced by the weight of the belt, to allow the diver to partially inflate the inflator bladder to achieve neutral buoyancy at the desired depth, and then, when the diver wishes to ascend, to more fully inflate the inflator bladder to achieve positive buoyancy and rapidly ascend to the surface.

A method of obtaining data with a sensor of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), the AUV comprising a bladder which contains a gas and is exposed to ambient water pressure. A downward thrust force is generated which causes the AUV to descend through a body of water, wherein the bladder contracts as the AUV descends due to an associated increase in the ambient water pressure, the contraction of the bladder causing the gas to compress and the AUV to become negatively buoyant. Next the AUV lands on a bed of the body of water. After the AUV has landed on the bed, the sensor is operated to obtain data with the AUV stationary and negatively buoyant and a weight of the AUV supported by the bed. After the data has been obtained, an upward thrust force is generated which overcomes the negative buoyancy of the AUV and causes the AUV to ascend through the body of water, the ascent of the AUV causing the bladder to expand due to the associated decrease in the ambient water pressure, the expansion of the bladder causing the gas to decompress and the AUV to become neutrally buoyant.

The dock vessel has the tow compartment for placement of tug-boats, and technological compartment. The technological compartment is made as a hangar at the bottom of which a central channel is located, along its upper boundaries, the rack-ledges with symmetrical location to the right and left, toward the hull, are placed on which the technological equipment for the water-oil emulsion treatment is placed. Between the dock-vessel hull walls and side walls of the central channel, the containers for collection of the emulsified oil are placed. The central channel of the technological compartment is equipped with, at least, two bulkheads in which, the hermetically pluggable openings located at different levels are made. The floating boom is made as the sectional net sleeve filled with elastic porous adsorbent and provided with positive buoyancy in the top edge of doubled net forming the net sleeve and negative buoyancy at its lower edge.

The invention discloses a water bag ballast method for immersed tube tunnel construction. The water bag ballast method for immersed tube tunnel construction comprises the following steps of firstly, calculating the number and arrangement positions of water bags needing to be laid in a water bag ballast system according to the buoyancy stressed by an immersed tube; secondly, arranging and installing the water bag ballast system in the immersed tube; thirdly, carrying out water storage and leak detection on the water bags; fourthly, during floating transportation and immersion placement of the immersed tube, controlling and regulating negative buoyancy and gesture of the immersed tube in the process of transverse movement, floating transportation and immersion installation of the immersed tube in a dock by carrying out water storage and drainage on the water bags; and fifthly, detaching the water bag ballast system after the installation process of the immersed tube is completed. The water bag ballast method for immersed tube tunnel construction has the advantages of being simple in construction process, high in operation efficiency and control accuracy, and low in construction costand labor cost, and is very high in practicability.

A whale-safe goundline rope for attachment to undersea traps and seagoing buoys. This rope is made of melt-processable polymers having filler particulate distributed uniformly throughout the polymer, prior to it being extruded into a fiber or yarn. The manufacturing process generates a hollow rope, with that being a rope made from hollow fibers or yarn. The filler particulate is sufficient to provide a rope with negative buoyancy.

According to the multifunctional workboat with the buoyancy adjusting carrying platform and the operation method of the multifunctional workboat, during marine transportation, marine equipment can becarried on a loading deck of a water surface boat in a dry mode and can also be tied and fixed to the deck of the buoyancy adjusting carrying platform; during laying, the ocean equipment is transferred to the buoyancy adjusting carrying platform by means of a rail and a flatcar on the loading deck, and laying and recycling operation of the ocean equipment is implemented by means of linkage of a buoyancy adjusting system of the buoyancy adjusting carrying platform and a plurality of winches on the main deck of the working ship. The buoyancy adjusting system of the carrying platform is used forbalancing the gravity and buoyancy of the carrying platform and the ocean equipment as a whole. Therefore, the requirement for the performance of the winch on the main deck is greatly lowered, only small tension needs to be provided to maintain the depth of the carrying platform, and the carrying platform is lighter, more flexible, economical and reliable compared with an A frame, a floating craneand the like used for offshore hoisting.