| 摘要 |
A subsurface sampler which obtains samples of sand from offshore deposits. A 27 foot tube within a tube is lowered to the ocean floor while suspended from flotation tanks. The sampler is free of suspension cables and thus is detached from boat motions. Surface sand is sucked up through the suction tube and pumped to a container on deck by a jet pump. A jet pump is actuated by high pressure drive water sent down a three inch hose to the top of the sampler, through the void between the two pipes, and to an annular jet nozzle. The nozzle directs the flow upward in the two-inch center pipe through a venturi-shaped throat piece. The throat piece causes sand to be sucked up the suction tube and transported in a slurry through the inner pipe and a two-inch slurry hose to the surface. A manifold valve in the inner pipe shuts off upward flow, jetting water from the lower intake and flowing away sand to let the sampler drop deeper into a deposit. Upward pointing nozzles on the outer pipe provide an upward flow of water around the periphery of the sampler, preventing sand from collapsing around the sampler embedding it in the sand. A sharpened cutting tip helps break up compacted sand. A mercury switch senses deviation from vertical, and a sonar device measures distance of the tip of the sampler pipe from the sand surface.
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