Underwater excavator
AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
InventorsHarry S. Williams, Jan B. Yates, John J. Reidy, Ernest Faccini, Terry E. Hill, William K. Shafley
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Abstract
An underwater excavator comprising a modular non-metallic cofferdam wherein ater under pressure exits from a plurality of nozzles along at least one side of the base of the cofferdam and a fluid driven eductor driven by pressurized fluid evacuates the suspended solids raised by the pressurized fluid that flows through the nozzles, with a plurality of small barrier nozzles located along one or more horizontal conduits used to sink the cofferdam.
Claims12
An underwater excavator for excavating a sensitive ordnance device comprising plural contiguous barrier wall members, wherein each of said members consists of a covered rectangular framework of hollow conduit with upper and lower horizontal members, where, each horizontal member comprises a part of the exterior barrier wall, with means to pump pressurized fluid through selected portions of the said horizontal members and where selected horizontal members are fitted with multiple nozzle means located along the underside of one or more said horizontal members, means to pump pressurized fluid through the said horizontal members and into the barrier nozzle means combined with a fluid driven jet pump eductor that produces differential pressure within the confines of the excavator, and means to pump pressurized fluid through the said eductor in order to remove suspended solids from the confines of the excavator so that the suspended solids are removed from the confines of the four barrier walls of the excavator by the differential pressure produced by pressurized fluid being pumped through said hollow conduit and into the jet pump eductor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.