Other

Franklin C Wade

Richard A Anderson

Robert M Norman

Richard H Barron

A method for removal of large metal objects such as offshore platforms that may be embedded in or substantially immobile and lying on the seabed. The environment should be dislodged from at least a portion of the supporting pile embedded below the mud line. A liquified gas is injected into the environment in contact with the pile to embrittle the pile. Upon embrittlement, the pile is fragmented. Thereafter, the pile may be removed from the seabed. A cannister for use in the above method has a body shaped to conform to the pile or object to be fragmented and contains liquified gas to be sprayed from nozzles by a pressurized gas to chill the object to be fragmented upon embrittlement. A support is positioned on the body for raising and lowering the cannister within the pile. A fragmentation tool for insertion into the pile or other object to be removed from embedment in the sea and having a plurality of anvils housed in open ended elongated tubes, a propulsion means generating gas pressure, a frangible connection that ruptures when sufficient pressure is generated to propel the anvils to strike the embrittled area and cause fragmentation. An apparatus for applying tension to the pile before fragmentation consists of one or more hydraulic rams connected between the pile and the concentric jacket.

Method and apparatus for removal of submerged offshore objects

An underwater trenching apparatus for burying pipeline and the like including a frame for positioning about the pipeline to be buried, a drive roller system operatively connected to the frame for driving the frame along the pipeline and including at least one pair of opposed rollers, each of the rollers having a curved pipe contact surface having a radius less than the radius of the pipeline to be buried and configured to grasp about 40 percent of the circumference of the pipe, the arms to which the rollers are mounted pivot about a shaft which is removably mounted to the frame, and a cutting system attached to the frame for cutting a trench, the cutting system includes at least one pair of rotating discs rotating about a horizontal axis, and having water nozzles extending out from them, the water forced out of the nozzles scoops the seabed and disperses it up, away from the bottom of the trench. The pair of discs are mounted so that they can be moved up and down as well as rotated in and out. An eductor system for drawing up portions of cuttings cut by said cutting means in the trench and discharging these portions away from the trench can be mounted on a carriage separate from the frame which is pulled a distance behind the frame.

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Mandeville, LA, United States of America

Franklin C Wade