Conoco Inc.

Norman W Hein, Jr

Marvin L Peterson

Donald H Oertle

Andrew F Hunter

Douglas H Warren

Steven E Hawkins

Steven M Craig

Charles T Gautreau

Frank S Wang

Robert R Masecar

Robert W Heels

Lee M Sandora

Horace F House

An apparatus and method are provided for dewatering an interior of a hollow tension leg connecting a tension leg platform to a floor of a body of water. The apparatus includes a pump having a suction inlet defined on its lower end and a discharge outlet on its upper end. An elongated storage tank is attached to the upper end of the pump above the pump and has a tank interior communicated with the discharge outlet. The assembly is lowered on an electric wireline through which power is conducted to the pump. The pump fills the tank and then the assembly is withdrawn from the tension leg and the water is drained therefrom. The assembly can be repeatedly lowered into the tension leg and withdrawn therefrom until the tension leg is substantially completely dewatered. Solid debris can be removed from the tension leg prior to dewatering.

Tension leg dewatering apparatus and method

A method for removing obsolete piling-anchored offshore platforms. The pilings at a desired cutoff point below the seabed are chilled to the point that toughness against brittle fracture is greatly reduced, and then a fracturing force is applied to the chilled section of piling.

Method for removing obsolete offshore platforms

Acoustic emissions are detected so that the amount of wear on the interior of a conduit can be directly determined. The acoustic emissions arise from plastic deformations and fractures caused by the fluid and particulate substances therein flowing through the conduit and impinging upon the interior surface of the conduit or by cavitation. The apparatus as disclosed has the capability to detect and also locate the surface area where wear is occurring.

Method and apparatus for erosion detection and location in hydrocarbon

At least two types of reflective or emissive materials are applied in alternating manner to a pile or other object to be moved. Ultraviolet energy is emitted toward the materials and reflections or emissions therefrom are received by appropriate detector elements which convert the different respective reflected or emitted energy spectra into corresponding electrical signals for use by a processor device to determine the distance and rate which the pile or object is being moved. The calculated information is channeled to a suitable display and a permanent recording device.

Displacement measurement device and method

A pile driving hammer monitoring apparatus is disclosed to include a pressure wave sensor, such as a hydrophone, remotely located from the pile driving equipment for detecting pressure waves generated by the hammer striking a pile. The sensor generates a proportional analog electrical signal which is conditioned into a corresponding digital electrical signal and conveyed to a microcomputer. The microcomputer calculates the hammer blow rate over a predetermined time period or over a selectable time period or distance of pile movement. Data independent of the blow rate information is enterable into the microcomputer by means of presettable multi-position switches. The apparatus can be powered either by an alternating current source or a direct current source.

Method and apparatus for remotely monitoring and evaluating pile driving

A dual element strain gauge is placed near a welded or otherwise constrained joint on a structural member so as to provide a constraint factor. The location for the strain gauge must be selected to provide constraint factor that is preferably near either maximum or minimum value. The strain gauge is monitored to detect a change in the initial constraint factor, which indicates failure has begun or is imminent.

Constraint factor for structural monitoring

Initiation and propagation of cracks in materials is detected and monitored by (a) adhering an acoustical emitter to the area of the material to be monitored, and (b) monitoring for acoustical signals emitted by the adhered emitter, said signals produced by cracks in the material initiating in or propagating into the acoustical emitter. An acoustical emitter such as brittle plastic, glass rods or strips and metal such as tin or cadmium can be used.

Growing community of inventors

Ponca City, OK, United States of America

Norman W Hein, Jr