Marine Survey Cable Retriever Buoyancy Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Marine survey systems face challenges with sensor streamers becoming negatively buoyant and disconnecting, leading to incomplete data acquisition due to failure scenarios, and existing inflatable balloon systems are bulky and noisy, affecting signal quality.
Innovation Solution
A retriever system comprising a ballast weight system that can be selectively jettisoned and a smaller, lighter lifting bag system that deploys only when necessary, working together to maintain buoyancy and retrieve disconnected sensor streamers with reduced acoustic noise.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If an inflatable balloon system is used to trigger and surface the sensor streamer, then the sensor streamer can be retrieved from negative buoyancy, but the system becomes large and bulky and creates noise in the signals received by sensor streamers
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the traditional inflatable balloon component from the retrieval system entirely. Instead, it uses a weight system that can be selectively jettisoned to change the buoyancy characteristics of the sensor streamer assembly. This extraction of the balloon eliminates the source of acoustic noise while maintaining the core functionality of retrieving the sensor streamer from negative buoyancy conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs a disposable weight system where weights are attached to the sensor streamer and can be selectively released. These weights serve their purpose temporarily to adjust buoyancy and then are discarded (jettisoned) when no longer needed. This approach replaces the reusable but noisy balloon system with a simple, temporary weight system that creates no acoustic interference.
2Reliability
If a traditional balloon system is used for retrieval, then the sensor streamer can surface, but the system size and bulk increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and removes the large-volume balloon component from the retrieval system. The replacement weight system occupies minimal space and can be compactly attached to the sensor streamer. This extraction dramatically reduces the volume of the retrieval system while preserving the ability to surface the sensor streamer by changing buoyancy characteristics through selective weight jettisoning.
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 effectively compensates for buoyancy changes and retrieves sensor streamers with minimal disruption to data acquisition, reducing the size and noise impact of retrieval systems while ensuring complete data collection.
Implementation Method 1
an inflatable balloon system may trigger, which causes the sensor streamer to surface
Implementation Method 2
A retriever system comprising a ballast weight system that can be selectively jettisoned
Data Source
AI summary
A marine geophysical survey cable retriever system. At least some of the illustrative embodiments are methods including causing a submerged survey cable to surface. In some cases, causing the submerged survey cable to surface includes: shedding ballast weights when the survey cable reaches or exceeds a first predetermined depth; and inflating a lifting bag when the survey cable reaches or exceeds a second predetermined depth.