Flexible Marine Barrier with Buoyancy and Capture Studs
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional marine barriers are expensive, complex, and prone to system failures due to high material and anchoring requirements to handle kinetic and environmental loads, posing risks to both vessels and personnel, and lack effective solutions for capturing high-speed small boats while minimizing environmental impact.
Innovation Solution
A marine barrier system featuring a flexible plate with studs and buoyancy members that provide buoyancy, allowing the studs to remain above water, utilizing high-friction capture studs and anchoring elements, and designed for minimal protrusion above the water surface to reduce wind and wave loads, capable of stopping multiple vessels and equipped with a detection grid.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional barriers use mass and complex interlinked connections to stop high-speed boats, then the barrier can capture vessels, but the system becomes expensive, complex, and requires massive anchoring
Solution Approach 1:
The barrier is divided into discrete modular units, each consisting of a buoyancy member with integrated studs. These modular segments can be independently deployed and connected, replacing the complex continuous structures of traditional barriers while maintaining vessel capture capability through distributed stud arrays.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs a flexible plate or mesh material stretched across the modular units, creating a lightweight yet effective capture surface. This flexible membrane replaces rigid panels and complex mechanical connections, reducing system complexity while maintaining effectiveness in stopping vessels.
2Reliability
If barriers are erected to match the height of a vessel's prow above water, then vessels can be ensnared, but the surface area exposed to wind, wave, and current loads increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The barrier adopts a dynamic, flexible configuration that can move and deform with environmental forces rather than resisting them rigidly. The flexible plate and modular buoyant structure allow the barrier to flex with waves and winds, reducing peak loads while maintaining the stud array's ability to capture vessels.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention transitions from a two-dimensional surface barrier to a three-dimensional modular structure with buoyancy members extending below the water surface. This vertical dimension provides structural support and reduces the need for large above-water surface area, thereby reducing exposure to wind and wave loads.
3Reliability
If anchor points are made heavier and typically steel to resist forces and corrosion, then the barrier can withstand environmental conditions, but material requirements and costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The buoyancy members provide upward buoyant force that counteracts the downward forces from environmental loading and vessel impacts. This reduces the anchoring requirement, as the anchors need only to prevent drift rather than resist the full weight and force loads, allowing for reduced material quantity while maintaining reliability.
4Force
If the barrier uses a low profile to reduce wind and wave loads, then environmental resistance improves, but vessel detection and visual monitoring become more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The flexible plate or mesh material can be colored or patterned to enhance visibility against the water background. This allows the low-profile barrier to remain visually detectable for monitoring purposes while maintaining the reduced surface area that minimizes environmental loading.
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
The system reduces material and anchoring needs, lowers costs, enhances safety by minimizing impact forces, and effectively captures vessels with reduced structural loads, maintaining a low profile to withstand environmental conditions while providing clear vessel detection and rapid deployment.
Implementation Method 1
a plurality of buoyancy members attached below the flexible plate. The plurality of buoyancy members provides buoyancy for the flexible plate, allowing the plurality of studs above a water surface
Implementation Method 2
utilizing high-friction capture studs
Data Source
AI summary
A marine barrier includes a flexible plate, a plurality of studs mounted on the flexible plate, and a plurality of buoyancy members attached below the flexible plate. The plurality of buoyancy members provides buoyancy for the flexible plate, allowing the plurality of studs above a water surface, while the plurality of buoyancy members below the water surface.