Flexible device for sucking up large quantities of fluids, especially for pumping seawater from the depth.

摘要

1. Flexible device for sucking in heavy flows of fluid (3) comprising a flexible pipe (7, 53) held in generally cylindrical shape by rigid reinforcing means (8, 8a, 8b, 30) associated to the supple wall of said pipe (7, 53) and stretched by exerting a pulling force parallely to the axis of the pipe, the pressure being exerted on the inside of the supple wall is less with respect to the ambient medium, characterized in that the rigid reinforcing means are constituted by rings (8, 8a, 8b, 30) spaced out one from the other and fixed in sections normal to the axis and inside the supple wall, in that the stretching is evenly distributed over all the generatrices and in that under the naturally conjugated effects of the differential pressure exerted on the supple wall resting on the rigid rings (8, 8a, 8b, 30) and of the tension applied in the direction of the generatrices, the geometry of said flexible pipe (7, 53) is thus balanced and perfectly stabilized as a succession of concave sections, between the rigid rings.