US 4,477,207 AGranted

Marine riser buoyancy assembly

OwnerArne I. Johnsoninventor

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Abstract

A buoyancy assembly for mounting on a pipe such as a marine riser having service lines, such as choke and kill lines extending therealong, the assembly including discontinuous clamping band members shaped to encompass the pipe and having brackets disposed to join the ends of the band members and tighten their grip on the pipe when bolts joining the band members to the brackets are tightened, the brackets having opposed walls extending outwardly therefrom and supporting cradles to receive and clamp the service lines, and the assembly including arcuate flotation modules of syntactic foam shaped to lie against the riser pipe and removably occupy the spaces between the service lines and form a generally cylindrical outer contour, the modules being held in place against the pipe by tensioning belts each comprising a strap anchored to the adjacent brackets and being tensioned by a tension bar gripping an end of a strap and bolted by tensioning bolts to a link which is pivotally connected to the adjacent bracket. Multiple service line supporting cradles are spaced around the circumference of the clamping bands at positions opposite each service line.

Claims11

Dependent claims

A buoyancy assembly for mounting on a riser pipe having service lines extending therealong, the assembly comprising:

(a) discontinuous clamping band means shaped to extend around the riser pipe normal to its axis and having opposed ends and having tightening means for securing said opposed ends to tighten the clamping band means on the pipe;
(b) bracket means attached to the band means opposite at least one service line, and each bracket means having walls extending outwardly from the band means including two opposed transverse walls extending in a plane normal to said axis;
(c) service line supporting means carried by at least one of said transverse walls of the bracket means and each including a supporting cradle and a clamping bar, and including securing means to tighten the bar toward the cradle;
(d) arcuate flotation modules shaped to lie against the riser pipe between the service lines, and having outer surfaces forming a contour surrounding the riser pipe;
and
(e) belt means for securing the modules in the assembly, and comprising a strap overlying each module and the strap having a tension bar at each end;
a link pivoted to each bracket means;
and tensioning bolt means extending between the tension bars and the links and operative when tightened to tension the strap overlying the adjacent module.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.