PNEUMATIC BARRIER SYSTEM FOR WATER SURFACES

• US 3,651,646 A
• Filed: 05/21/1970
• Issued: 03/28/1972
• Est. Priority Date: 05/21/1970
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Heinz Grunau
• Original Assignee: Heinz Grunau
• Inventors: Grunau, Heinz
• Primary Examiner(s): Bashore, S. Leon
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lindsay, Jr., Robert L.
• Application Number:
  US05/039,262
• Time in Patent Office: 677 Days
• Field of Search: 61/1R,1F,6 210/170,242,220,221 137/525.1
• US Class Current: 405/62
• CPC Class Codes: B01F 23/23122 having elements opening under air pressure, e.g. valves
• CPC Class Codes: C02F 3/201 Perforated, resilient plastic diffusers, e.g. membranes, sheets, foils, tubes, hoses
• CPC Class Codes: E02B 1/003 Mechanically induced gas or liquid streams in seas, lakes or water-courses for forming weirs or breakwaters; making or keeping water surfaces free from ice, aerating or circulating water, e.g. screens of air-bubbles against sludge formation or salt water entry, pump-assisted water circulation moving sediments E02B3/023; for ice breakers B63B35/08; aerating or circulating water in fish-tanks A01K63/042; purification of waste water with addition of air C02F; distributing gases in liquids in general B01F23/20
• CPC Class Codes: Y02W 10/10 Biological treatment of water, waste water, or sewage

Abstract

A system for the confinement of pollutants on water surfaces until collected or chemically dispersed. The system effects its confining action by generating a curtain or barrier of air bubbles which at the surface of the water form a series of overlapping aerated water hills capable of blocking the passage of a pollutant, such as oil film, therethrough. The system is designed to enable it to provide a continuous barrier of aerated water hills over long period of use and even though it may be installed on harbor and waterway bottoms where silty conditions prevail. This is accomplished by a pipe for supplying compressed gas to an outlet comprising a nozzle plate having an orifice of a size to allow a metered amount of air to pass with a check valve located downstream of the nozzle plate.

Claims

1. A pneumatic barrier system for forming on the surface of a body of water a pollutant confining water barrier constituted of overlapping aerated water hills, comprising an underwater conduit arrangeable in a given geometric pattern defining the area of the water surface within which the pollutants are to be confined and having a plurality of air escapement openings located in given spaced relation along the length thereof, means associated with said openings for controlling the ejection of air from said conduit and the reception of solid particles into said conduit on the cessation of such air ejection, and means for supplying compressed air to said conduit for escapement through said control means against the hydrostatic pressure, said control means at each conduit opening including relatively rigid means substantially blocking the passage of air through the conduit opening and being provided with a reduced orifice of constant given dimensions through which is ejected a precise flow of pressurized air capable of forming at The water surface an aerated water hill, and said control means including a tubular member for conducting the flow of air discharged through said reduced orifice to the body of water, said tubular member having an interior diameter substantially greater than said reduced orifice and having at its discharge end resilient flaps that are relatively freely spreadable by the pressurized air flow from said orifice to permit the ejection thereof and that close automatically when the hydrostatic pressure exceeds the air pressure in said tubular member to prevent the reception through said tubular member and orifice and into said conduit of solid particles in suspension in the body of water.

2. A system as defined in claim 1, in which said rigid means is a plate having a centrally located reduced orifice, and in which said tubular member is seated at its inner end in sealed relation on the periphery of the outer face of said plate.

3. A system as defined in claim 2, in which said control means comprises a tubular housing having an external thread in threaded engagement with the wall of the conduit opening, an internal thread in its inner portion and an inner annular seat adjacent the outer end of said internal thread, said tubular member having at its inner end an external flange mounted in said annular seat and on the periphery of said plate, and means engageable with said internal thread and sealing said external flange to the periphery of the outer face of said plate.