Pressure-sustaining vessel
OwnerMasanobu Shinozukainventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A vessel designed for deep-sea diving or for outer-space exploration has a hull divided into a multiplicity of concentric spherical shells separated by clearances in which air or some other fluid is maintained at a pressure constituting a fraction of the overall pressure differential between the interior of the vessel and the surrounding body of water or empty space. The fractional pressures, whose sum equals the overall differential, can be maintained by valves closing whenever the predetermined fractional differential of the respective clearance is reached; alternatively, a controller responsive to signals from individual pressure sensors in the several clearances can control a pressure pump with separate outlets to these clearances.
Claims6
A vessel for deep-sea diving designed to sustain a pressure differential between its interior and its surroundings, comprising:
- a hull formed from a multiplicity of concentrically nested shells including an innermost shell and several outer shells separated by intervening fluid-filled clearances;
- sensing means in said hull for determining the pressure prevailing in each of said clearances;
- and
- pressure-control means responsive to said sensing means for admitting sea water from outside said hull into said clearances under pressures corresponding to a fractional value of the overall pressure differential between the interior of the innermost shell and the outside, the sum of the water pressures in said clearances equaling said overall pressure differential.
A vessel designed to sustain a pressure differential between its interior and it surroundings, comprising:
- a hull formed from a multiplicity of concentrically nested shells separated by intervening fluid-filled clearances, said shells including a boundary shell defining a low-pressure side of said hull;
- a valve in a port of each shell except said boundary shell;
- a spring-loaded plunger connected with each valve;
- and
- a cylinder surrounding said plunger, said cylinder being mounted on a shell adjoining the one provided with the respective valve on the low-pressure side of the latter, said adjoining shell having an opening communicating with said cylinder for subjecting said plunger to the pressure difference effective thereacross, the spring force acting upon each plunger being calibrated to maintain the individual pressure in each of said clearances at a fractional value of the overall pressure differential between the interior of the innermost shell and the outside, the sum of the individual pressures in said clearances equaling said overall pressure differential.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.