Back to results
US 9,315,241 B2Granted
Buoyant turret mooring with porous receptor cage
AssigneeSeahorse Equipment Corp
InventorsTodd Vincent Carrico, Steven John Leverette
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Loading patent…
Loading patent…
AssigneeSeahorse Equipment Corp
InventorsTodd Vincent Carrico, Steven John Leverette
Estimating the term…
A disconnectable buoyant turret mooring system for an FPSO is vulnerable to damage from collisions between the buoy and the buoy turret cage during mating and de-mating operations. It is therefore desirable that the buoy separate quickly from the turret of the FPSO vessel during a disconnect operation. A buoy turret cage is provided with a certain degree of porosity that allows a flow of seawater from the outside of the receptor to the inner surface of the receptor. Introducing water in this way relieves the suction forces and allows for a quicker separation of the buoy from the turret of the FPSO vessel, minimizing the time during which an uncontrolled collision between the buoy and the FPSO vessel is most likely. Filling a portion of the turret above the mooring buoy with water prior to releasing the buoy also decreases the separation time.
A turret cage for an FPSO vessel equipped with a buoyant turret mooring system comprising:
An FPSO vessel comprising:
A method of disconnecting a mooring buoy from an FPSO vessel equipped with a buoyant turret mooring system comprising:
A cylindrical turret for a FPSO vessel wherein the turret at its lower end is provided with a generally bell shaped structure attached to a lower end of the turret and having an open, top end and an opposing, open, bottom end and an inner surface between the top and bottom ends at least of portion of which is in the shape of a conical frustum, a plurality of through holes in the conical frustum portion of the inner surface and wherein no porosity is present in a lower turret wall in an area above the generally bell shaped structure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.