Floatable dry docks

摘要

A floating dock including a submersible platform including at least one buoyancy tank wherein the buoyancy tank has a plurality of compartments each of which has a permanently open vent through which water is freely flowable into and out of the compartment and an inlet which enables air to be expelled from the compartment into the atmosphere or enables compressed air to be supplied to the compartment via a non return valve which causes water within the tank to be forced out via the vent, thereby increasing the buoyancy of the tank. The vent does not have any valves associated with it and is permanently open to the sea. As a result the floating dry dock of the present invention may be lowered and raised faster than conventional dry docks which rely on valved vents to control entry and exit of water into and out of their buoyancy tanks.

主权项

1. A floating dock comprising:
a submersible platform comprising at least one buoyancy tank having a plurality of compartments, each compartment having:
a permanently open vent through which water is freely flowable into and out of the compartment; andan inlet; and a conduit connecting the inlets of each compartment to one another and to a compressed air supply, the conduit having a plurality of separate conduit portions, each of the separate conduit portions corresponding to one of the plurality of compartments, respectively. the conduit including:
a first isolation valve provided between the inlet of the corresponding compartment and the atmosphere;a second isolation valve provided between the inlet of the corresponding compartment and the compressed air supply; andan air non-return valve between the second isolation valve and the compressed air supply;
wherein, in use, air is expelled from the plurality of compartments into the atmosphere to cause the dock to sink, or compressed air is supplied to the plurality of compartments which increases the buoyancy of the tank, each air non-return valve being located and configured to prevent air from flowing from one of the plurality of compartments into another of the plurality of compartments.