Diving Support System with Shipboard Nitrogen Production
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Solution Overview
Problem
The use of helium as an inactive gas for pressurization in saturation diving requires a large number of gas bombs, increasing the size of the mother ship.
Innovation Solution
A diving work support system utilizing a nitrogen producer on the mother ship to separate nitrogen from air and supply it as an inactive gas for pressurization, along with a deck and underwater decompression chamber, allowing the underwater chamber to move down to a target depth of 40 meters or less.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If helium is used as the inactive gas for pressurization, then nitrogen poisoning is prevented and breathing resistance is reduced, but the size of the mother ship increases due to the large number of gas bombs required
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the nitrogen supply function from the traditional helium-based gas bomb system and creates a separate, dedicated nitrogen production system. This allows the mother ship to carry nitrogen on-site through production rather than storing large quantities of helium gas bombs, thereby reducing the required storage space while maintaining the ability to prevent nitrogen poisoning.
Solution Approach 2:
The nitrogen producer enables the mother ship to generate its own nitrogen supply through on-site production from air separation. This self-service approach eliminates the need to store large amounts of pre-filled gas bombs, as the system can produce nitrogen as needed, directly addressing the space constraint while ensuring safety against nitrogen poisoning.
2Productivity
If a large number of gas bombs filled with helium are mounted on the mother ship, then the diving work can be performed at deep depth, but the space required on the mother ship increases
Solution Approach 1:
The nitrogen producer enables the mother ship to generate its own nitrogen supply through on-site production from air separation. This self-service approach eliminates the need to store large amounts of pre-filled gas bombs, as the system can produce nitrogen as needed, directly addressing the space constraint while ensuring safety against nitrogen poisoning.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the gas type parameter from helium to nitrogen for the pressurization function. This parameter change allows the use of a nitrogen producer that can generate nitrogen on-site from air, replacing the need for storing large quantities of helium in gas bombs, thereby reducing the space requirement on the mother ship while maintaining diving work capability.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This configuration reduces the size of the mother ship by using nitrogen instead of helium, enabling efficient diving operations at shallower depths.
Implementation Method 1
a nitrogen producer that is mounted on the mother ship, separates nitrogen from air, and supplies the nitrogen to the deck decompression chamber
Implementation Method 2
by supplying an inactive gas to a deck decompression chamber (DDC) mounted on a mother ship, the pressure in the deck decompression chamber and the pressure in an underwater decompression chamber coupled to the deck decompression chamber are increased to be equal to the pressure at a target depth
Data Source
AI summary
A diving work support system includes: a mother ship; a deck decompression chamber mounted on the mother ship; and an underwater decompression chamber that is coupleable to the deck decompression chamber and is made to move down from the mother ship to a target depth. The diving work support system further includes a nitrogen producer that is mounted on the mother ship, separates nitrogen from air, and supplies the nitrogen to the deck decompression chamber. The nitrogen producer may supply the nitrogen to the underwater decompression chamber separated from the deck decompression chamber.