Sea Water System with Segmented Pumps and Overflow Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing sea water systems on floating vessels face challenges in ensuring reliable, leak-proof, and easily maintainable supply of sea water for various applications, particularly prioritizing high-priority consumers like fire-fighting systems while minimizing contamination and physical connections below the water surface.
Innovation Solution
A sea water system with separate inlet and outlet conduit assemblies, including a ballast tank and overflow arrangement, allows independent feeding and discharge of sea water, ensuring high pressure and flow rates for different users, with an intermediate tank acting as a buffer to manage demand and prevent contamination, and an overflow arrangement controlling maximum pressure and flow rates.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If a single pump assembly is used for both inlet and outlet of sea water, then the device complexity is reduced, but the reliability and ability to prioritize high-priority consumers deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The pump assembly is segmented into a first pump assembly for inlet and a second pump assembly for outlet. This segmentation allows independent operation of each pump, enabling the system to prioritize high-priority consumers by controlling the second pump while the first pump continues to supply sea water, thus improving reliability without excessive complexity.
2Device complexity
If inlet and outlet conduit assemblies are combined into a single system, then the device complexity is reduced, but the risk of contamination and leakage increases
Solution Approach 1:
The conduit system is divided into separate inlet conduit assembly and outlet conduit assembly. The inlet conduit assembly has fewer physical connections, particularly below the water surface, reducing potential leakage points. The outlet conduit assembly is separated to prevent contamination from flowing back into the inlet system, thus reducing contamination risk while maintaining manageable complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The outlet conduit assembly is extracted and separated from the inlet conduit assembly. This extraction ensures that sea water discharged from the ballast tank does not contaminate the inlet system, and the two systems can be maintained independently, reducing the overall contamination risk.
3Adaptability or versatility
If physical connections below water surface are increased to enable flexible sea water supply, then the adaptability is improved, but the risk of leakage and contamination increases
Solution Approach 1:
Physical connections below the water surface are extracted and minimized in the inlet conduit assembly. The first pump assembly is positioned to require fewer submerged connections, and the separate outlet conduit assembly prevents the need for additional complex sub-surface connections, thus reducing leakage risk while maintaining supply flexibility through alternative routing.
4Device complexity
If no overflow arrangement is present to control maximum level, then the device complexity is reduced, but the pressure control and safety deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The overflow arrangement provides automatic self-regulating pressure control. When the sea water level in the ballast tank reaches the overflow level, water automatically drains through the overflow arrangement, maintaining maximum pressure control without requiring complex active control systems or additional energy input, thus achieving safety with minimal added complexity.
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 ensures reliable sea water supply for various applications, prioritizes high-priority users, reduces the risk of contamination, and facilitates easy maintenance by maintaining separate physical connections and controlling pressure and flow rates effectively.
Implementation Method 1
A first pump assembly is arranged in the inlet conduit assembly for pumping sea water through at least a first conduit portion towards the ballast tank
Implementation Method 2
A second pump assembly is arranged in fluid communication with the ballast tank and is adapted for pumping sea water from the ballast tank through an outlet conduit assembly
Implementation Method 3
The overflow arrangement is adapted to lead away water from a portion of the inlet conduit assembly extending from the first pump assembly to the ballast tank
Data Source
AI summary
A sea water system comprises, an inlet conduit assembly, a ballast tank and an overflow arrangement arranged in fluid communication with the inlet conduit assembly. The inlet conduit assembly provides a fluid communication between ambient environment and the ballast tank. A first pump assembly is arranged in the inlet conduit assembly for pumping sea water through at least a first conduit portion towards the ballast tank. A second pump assembly is arranged in fluid communication with the ballast tank and is arranged for pumping sea water from the ballast tank through an outlet conduit assembly arranged after the second pump assembly. The second pump assembly and the outlet conduit assembly are separate from the inlet conduit assembly. The sea water system may be arranged on a floating vessel.