USA As Represented by Secretary of the Navy

Other

David B Coakley

Vincent J Castelli

Richard K Knutson

John W Johnston

David A Newborn

Stephen M Shepherd

A sandwich cable fairing designed for attachment to cables that are towed at operational speeds by marine vessels. The sandwich cable fairing has a design that combines layers of elastic and damping materials. The fairing dampens the vibration caused when the cable is towed at operational speeds. The outer layers ('bread') of the fairing are made from a material with a modulus of elasticity that provides a desired amount of stiffness. In the middle of the sandwich cable fairing is damping layer made from a viscoelastic material. The layering of materials allows the fairing to have the flexibility to be crushed by cable equipment while maintaining the requisite stiffness to reducing flapping and the resulting vibration.

Sandwich cable fairing apparatus and method with a central damping layer

A sandwich cable fairing designed for attachment to cables that are towed at operational speeds by marine vessels. The sandwich cable fairing has a seven-layer design that combines layers of elastic, fiber reinforced, and adhesive materials. The fairing dampens the vibration resulting from the frequency of flapping caused by a cable being towed at operational speeds. The layering of materials allows the fairing to have the flexibility to be crushed by cable equipment while maintaining the requisite stiffness to reducing flapping and the resulting vibration.

Multi-layered sandwich cable fairing apparatus for reducing flapping

In the absence of inventive practice, the hydrodynamic flows on both sides of a vertically oriented bluff body (e.g., cylinder) traveling through water tend to hug the bluff body proximate its curved back surface and to converge behind the bluff body, resulting in lateral sway of the bluff body. Exemplary inventive practice provides for attachment of a pair of waterjet-streaming devices at opposite axial ends of a bluff body such as a cylinder. The waterjet streams discharged by the two inventive devices, which adjoin the vertical bluff body, deflect the hydrodynamic flows on both curved side surfaces of the bluff body. The inventive apparatus thereby encourages a continued approximate parallelity of the hydrodynamic flows behind the bluff body, resulting in significantly greater stability of the bluff body. Some exemplary embodiments of the present invention provide for attachment of a single waterjet-streaming device at one axial end of the bluff body.

Hydrodynamic flow separation device for an axisymmetric bluff body

The invention is a chevron ribbon fairing that reduces hydrodynamic drag on marine cables towed by a vessel. The fairing is the shape of a 'V,' with an angle between the legs of the 'V' chosen on the basis of the predicted cable angle relative to the flow. The chevron angle is twice the cable angle. The tip of chevron ribbon fairing is woven into the outer armor strands of the steel cable or molded to a jacketed cable. When the cable is at shallow angles to the fluid flow, the fairing aligns with the flow, a presents a reduced cross sectional area to the fluid flow behind the towed cable. The chevron design allows the ribbon to naturally align with the fluid flow even as the ribbon rotates about its axis. This ensures a reduction in tangential drag regardless of the level of cable tension.

Chevron ribbon fairing apparatus and method for hydrodynamic vibration and drag reduction

A monorail switching arrangement is disclosed for switching the travel of a vehicle to either a continued-travel monorail section or a change-of-direction switched-travel monorail section, characterized by the provision of a plurality of vertically displaceable horizontal switching wheels arranged on opposite sides of the first monorail section for displacement between upper and lower positions in alternate engagement with pairs of continued-travel and switched-travel control tracks mounted on opposite sides of the monorail, respectively. In one embodiment, the switching wheels are vertically displaceable relative to the chassis, and in a second embodiment, the chassis and the switching wheels are vertically displaceable as a unit relative to the vehicle support wheels and the monorail.

Passive monorail switch for a box shaped track

For bartending, in order to avoid batch chilling of beer glasses and the like in which the last glasses put into a refrigerator are the first pulled out and are thus not properly chilled, a last in, last out glass chilling system provides a supply of properly chilled beer glasses even when newly washed warm glasses are to be chilled. In one embodiment, the last in, last out glass chilling system includes a series of trays on a conveyor in the cabinet, with each tray loaded with glasses. The conveyor moves the trays upwardly in the chill cabinet, with the chilling occurring during the time that the tray of glasses moves from a bottom position to a top position. This assures that, unlike batch chilling, properly chilled glasses are always available. In one embodiment, a tray of glasses is in inserted at the base of the chill cabinet, with the conveyor being motorized to move the trays within the chill cabinet in an upward direction. The topmost tray is presented at an upper aperture in the chill cabinet, with the chilled glasses being extractable from this upper aperture. In a preferred embodiment, the trays are slanted downwardly such that glasses on the trays move by gravity towards this upper aperture.

Glass chilling method and apparatus

Components of a flexible fairing shroud are attached adjacent their leading edges to bushings through which the fairing shroud is angularly displaced about a protectively surrounded structure exposed to a fluid medium. Inflow of the fluid medium is thereby accommodated in a direction resulting in inflation of the fairing shroud to a desired streamline shape established and maintained between leading and trailing edges during flow of the fluid medium to substantially reduce vibrations otherwise induced by such flow.

Inflatable vibration reducing fairing

A marine vessel is propelled under maneuvering control in a selected direction and travel speed through a body of seawater, by propulsion exclusively provided for by one or more submerged towing module pods attached to the underside of the vessel hull at locations between its bow and stern. Each of such towing pods may be attached to the vessel and spaced therebelow by an elongated cable so constructed for enclosure within a drag reducing fairing. Each of such cables has internal portions thereof arranged to electrically conduct current between the marine vessel and the towing pod for controllable operation of its propulsive equipment, while transferring the mechanical towing force so produced to the vessel.

Underwater towing of marine vessels

A flow blocking device is lowered by cable from a helicopter for insertion into the exhaust gas stack of a fuel burning combustion engine propelling a marine vessel under full engine speed. The wall of the exhaust stack are engaged upon entry of the flow blocking device to insure its retention within the exhaust stack and to initiate in sequence ejection of cooling water into the outflow of the exhaust gas followed by pressurized gas expansion of a flexible hose portion of the flow blocking device into sealing contact with the walls of the exhaust stack to stop exhaust gas outflow and cause back pressure build up to a high engine shut down level.

Exhaust blockage system for engine shut down

A thrust unit having an engine as an external source of motive power for a marine vessel in distress, is delivered by helicopter air drop to a remote seawater location together with other components of the associated towing system, delivered onto the deck of such marine vessel for operational assembly and connection to the thrust unit in order to initiate emergency towing of the marine vessel while immersed in the seawater adjacent thereto under control of personnel on the marine vessel.

Emergency ship towing system

A propelled cable fairing system for towing objects underwater having a plurality of cable fairings, which are individually propelled by motorized propulsion to avoid the thrust of propellers to overcome normally encountered drag heretofore utilized, which required use of longer and thicker cables resulting in a loss of control over the position of the towed object. In addition, the relative position of the propelled cable fairing system is maintained through a set of serially linked motor controllers that sense the relative position of each propelled cable fairing relative to it adjacent propelled cable fairing. Variation in position of the propelled cable fairing from a target, causes increase in speed of the motor or alters its angle of attack in order to keep the propelled cable fairings in predetermined alignment with the adjacent cable fairing. By use of a plurality of rudders, the propelled cable fairing system allows the operator to maintain the towed object at desired horizontal and vertical positions.

Growing community of inventors

Alexandria, VA, United States of America

David B Coakley