Apparatus and method to enhance the utility of hydrodynamic compaction machine
OwnerWilliam Eugene Hodgeinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus intended for incorporation as a module within ground improvement pokers such as those already patented (U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,554,543 and 8,419,316) in order to enhance the field performance of those hydrodynamic compactors by either improving their ground penetration capability, and/or, maintaining or recovering the permeability of their outer seepage filtration element; involving a method which can be activated remotely at the operator's discretion, while those parent devices are at depth within the earth. This apparatus and method may have application in water well installations and reviving flow in oil wells.
Claims3
An apparatus for enhancing the utility of a parent device intended to improve the geotechnical characteristics of saturated ground, the apparatus comprising:
- a. A module added to said parent device which can both enable said parent device to more easily penetrate said saturated ground and simultaneously improving the ability of said parent device to achieve more effective interaction with the water phase of said saturated ground through which said parent device is traversing;
- and
- b. Where the parent device is a hydrodynamic compactor of cylindrical shape which enters said saturated ground vertically with the circular section of said parent device being horizontal;
- and
- c. Where the said module fits within said parent device and said module can be activated remotely while said parent device is at depth within said saturated ground;
- and
- d. Where the lower part of said parent device which is in contact with the upper part of said module is comprised of, among other elements:
- i. An axially aligned drive shaft capable of rotation in both directions;
- ii. A short section of well screen forming the outer perimeter of said parent device;
- and
- iii. A conically shaped nose cone forming the bottom-most element of said parent device;
- and,
- iv. Where an accessible part of said parent device is filled with water to at least the level of the top of said well screen;
- and,
- e. Where said module is comprised of three necessary elements the top-most element being a loosely fitting spline shaft, said spline shaft terminating in a hanger at the lower end of the spline shaft;
- beneath which said spline shaft a two-piece spiral coupling resides;
- and with the lowermost element being a dead weight;
- and
- f. Where said drive shaft is fixedly connected to the top half of said spiral coupling, but thereafter passes freely through the lower half of said spiral coupling;
- and,
- g. Where said dead weight is contained loosely within a nose cavity drilled out of said nose cone;
- and,
- h. Where water conduits extend from the base of said nose cavity to the spaces between ribs at the base of said well screen.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.