Iti, Inc.

Itt Corporation

Societe Iti Ltd.

Georges L Mougin

A large floating mass (10) such as an off-shore structure or an iceberg is towed using two sea anchors (20 & 30) alternately. The motive power for towing is derived from winch means (15 & 16) on the large floating mass or on a barge immediately in front of it. The cable by which the towing force is transmitted runs from one of the sea anchors to the other so that it is payed out to one while the other is being winched towards the mass. The sea anchors are arranged to offer little resistance to forward movement through the water, but to offer a large resistance to backward movement, thereby offering a purchase from which towing is effected. The advantage of using two sea anchors is that with an alternating succession of towing operations it is possible to keep a substantially continuous tractive effort acting on the mass.

Method of towing large masses at sea

A protective skirt for a tabular iceberg (10) comprises a string of floating posts which support an upper protective portion near the water line. This portion is constituted by flexible panels (12) which provide both thermal protection and mechanical protection against wave action. Certain posts (e.g. A, B and F) include vertically arranged furling drums for winding-in the panels (12) attached thereto in order to fit the length of the skirt around the perimeter of iceberg. The skirt also includes a lower protective portion (e.g. spans 50, 52, 54) which is suspended from below the floating posts. This portion need only provide thermal protection since it is suspended below the deepest expected wave troughs. It is too large (e.g. 200 m) in the vertical direction for it to be conveniently wound-in on furling drums like the upper protective portion. In order to accommodate changes in the perimeter of the upper portion it is therefore split vertically and adjacent spans allowed to overlap by a variable amount using an auxiliary float moored some way along the upper portion.

Protective skirt for an iceberg

A large-scale protective device in accordance with the invention comprises an assembly of two types of unit, rigid cylindrical floating towers (3 to 6) and elastic connecting units (7, 8, 9) consisting of elastomer tubes. The generatrices of these elastic connecting units are in contact with vertical stiffeners (10) of the floating towers. These vertical stiffeners also serve to maintain cylindrical deflector rings (11) of the floating towers one above another in a stacked configuration.

Large-scale protective device for tabular icebergs or floating structures

An offshore floating tower comprises two coaxial cylindrical enclosures (2 and 11) interconnected by continuous radial bulkheads (10) forming in the upper portion a ring of damping chambers (12) and in the lower portion a ring of buoyancy tanks (4) around a bell-shaped chamber (5) which is partially filled with air to produce pneumatic damping of vertical movement of the tower. The upper portion of the tower is separated from the lower portion by a horizontal slab (3). The upper portion of the internal enclosure is perforated in the vicinity of the horizontal slab.

Self-stabilizing floating tower

A device (4) for thermally protecting the side of a tabular iceberg (1) produces a vertical layer of calm water (7) between itself and the vertical side wall of the tabular iceberg. This thermal protective device is suspended from a mechanical protective device, which may comprise a wall of floating towers (5). The protective device comprises panels (8) of woven or non-woven material parallel to the vertical side wall of the tabular iceberg, each of said panels having a width greater than its height, being suspended from a horizontal cable (10) passing through a top hem of the panel and being stretched taut by ballast (9).

Thermal protective device for tabular icebergs

The device comprises an assembly of three principal components, a member for embedding in the rear wall of a tabular iceberg at some depth below the water line, a support structure projecting therefrom and a propulsion unit. It preferably includes a shield to transmit the thrust to a sufficiently large surface of the iceberg wall to avoid creep problems. The propulsion unit may be an electric motor.

Propulsion device for embedding in an iceberg

To melt an iceberg once it has been brought to a tropical region where it is to act as a source of fresh water, use is made of the warm breezes of such tropical regions. Droplets of an artificial rain of cold fresh water are caused to drop through the warm air, thereby extracting heat from it. This heat is used to melt the iceberg. Preferably the cold fresh water comes from a pool of cold fresh water on the surface of the iceberg, and the artificial rain falls back into the pool. At night this method can also condense extra water from the air.

Method for rapidly melting an iceberg

A vertical wall is placed next to the flank of an iceberg to retain a vertical layer of trapped water in contact with the iceberg. Zig-zag tubes are threaded through the wall at intervals so that the 'elbows' in the zig-zags engage the iceberg flank to keep a fixed distance off.

Protective side wall for tabular icebergs

A wall for protecting tabular icebergs against the mechanical effects of the waves and swell contains between the protective wall and the vertical side face of the tabular iceberg to be protected a layer of seawater subject to level variations of smaller amplitude than is the seawater outside said protective wall. The protective wall comprises vertical curtains parallel to the vertical side wall of the tabular iceberg to be protected. These curtains are attached to cables which maintain them in a partially submerged position, supported by gantries on the substantially horizontal upper surface of the tabular iceberg to be protected.

Wall for protecting tabular icebergs against the mechanical effects of

Tabular icebergs can be used as a source of fresh water in arid regions if they are transported from the Antarctic to where there is a need for water. To help reduce the rate at which solar radiation melts the iceberg on its journey, pools of fresh water are maintained on its upper surface, thereby taking advantage of the fact that the latent heat of evaporation of water is about seven times that of fusion of ice. The pools are created by protecting a closed path on the surface of the iceberg from melting by means of flexible sheet material. The protected path then forms the walls of the pool. At its destination the iceberg's pools can be given a V-shaped bottom to help increase the rate at which the iceberg is turned into fresh water.

Creating and maintaining a pool of fresh water on a tabular iceberg

A member in the form of a ring connected by radial fins to central hub includes a heater at least for its lower surfaces so that in operation it melts the ice of the iceberg (starting from the top surface thereof) and sinks therethrough with the ice re-freezing above it. The member also includes a central tube removeably attached to the central hub. The tube is fed after the sinking member to provide a vertical shaft through the iceberg. The ring serves to remove a slab of larger diameter than the tube from the lower surface of the iceberg in order to receive a propulsion unit.

Member for attaching a propulsion unit to a tabular iceberg

A flat flotation unit incorporates buoyancy chambers and has a lower portion adapted to be attached to a propulsion unit and an upper portion adapted to grip into the substantially horizontal lower surface of a tabular iceberg. The grip is provided by upstanding support members which are embedded in the iceberg during operation. The support members include heaters and are in the form of hollow right prisms with walls which are grooved to facilitate the escape of iceberg melt water during embedding and which have openings in the vicinity of their connection to the flotation unit to enable seawater to escape from their hollow interiors during embedding.

Device for attaching propulsion units to a tabular iceberg

A device for protecting off-shore structures stretched between two floating towers of the 'Froude pole' type against the effects of ocean swell, comprising at least four floating poles, two vertical arrays of horizontal cables, and a deflection panel assembly attached to one of the vertical arrays of horizontal cables. The floating poles comprise a rigid metal structure between two metal cylinders of the same diameter. The vertical arrays of horizontal cables form opposed catenary curves and are braced by further horizontal cables extending between them.

Anti-swell protective device

Melted ice stored in a pool hollowed out of the upper surface of a tabular iceberg is used as a cold source and the sea on which the iceberg is floating is used as a hot source for a heat engine. Useful energy is extracted in spite of the low Carnot cycle efficiency and the melting of the iceberg to provide fresh water is accelerated.

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Paris, France

Georges L Mougin