Floating barrier method and apparatus

A boom for collecting material floating on the surface of a body of water comprises a first collapsible tube which can be stored either as flat layers of folded material or by rolling it on a roller. Transverse seals are provided along the length of the tube to provide a longitudinal sequence of compartments. A reactant body is disposed in at least one compartment, and being capable of producing an inflating gas. The reactant body is disposed within a pouch which is frangible under pressures applied by rollers or the like during the deployment of the boom from its stored condition. In a modification, a small collapsible tube is provided in longitudinally secured relationship to the first tube and the interior of the small tube is provided with fluid connections to each of the successive compartments. Pressured air is then applied to the first off end of the small tube to supply pressured gas to all of the compartments, thus inflating any compartment that is underinflated by the gas produced by the reactant body.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The invention relates to a method and apparatus for creating a floating 
boom for collecting floatable material, such as liquid hydrocarbons, 
floating on the surface of a body of water. 
2. Summary of the Prior Art 
Conventional oil booms normally comprise an elongate tubular body, 
generally produced by inflation of a fluid impervious tube to which is 
secured a depending, oil confining skirt. These booms are normally stored 
on land or on ship in a collapsed state, either by flat folding the 
collapsed tube or by rolling the collapsed tube on a reel. See, for 
example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,682,151 and 3,494,132 which disclose a series of 
inflatable plastic tubes, the ends of which are interconnected by sleeves. 
Integrally formed on each tube is a depending hollow fin having a weighted 
material such as lead shot contained in the lower longitudinal edge of the 
fin. 
U.S. Pat. No. 4,123,911 discloses a continuous inflatable tube. One end of 
the continuous tube is affixed to the deployment vessel and supplied with 
pressured air to effect its inflation. The second end of the tube, after 
it is fully deployed from the transport vessel on which it was originally 
stored, is then attached to either a second vessel or to a drogue or some 
similar means of stationing the second end of the barrier in the sea. 
U.S. Pat. No. 4,325,653 provides a collapsible boom which, in its inflated 
condition, has double buoyancy chambers disposed on each side of a central 
skirt member. A tension wire is secured to the lower skirt region and two 
pressurizing hoses are secured to the upper skirt region above the 
buoyancy chambers. Inflation air is then supplied through the pressurizing 
air hoses with the preferable arrangement being stated to be the 
utilization of separate air hoses respectively supplying the individual 
buoyancy chambers. Pressured air is supplied to the air hoses from an 
external source via a rotary gland fitted at the reel core axis. 
Each of the aforementioned prior art patents has the disadvantage that a 
leak developing in the inflatable tube can cause severe problems in 
maintaining the buoyancy of the boom. 
An attempt was made to overcome this problem in U.S. Pat. No. 3,792,589 by 
providing a collapsible boom having a series of longitudinally separated 
inflatable compartments. Each of these compartments necessarily had to be 
separately filled through an individual valve as the collapsed tube was 
dispensed from a storage reel. This obviously greatly increased the time 
required for effecting the deployment of the boom. 
The prior art has failed to disclose a rapidly deployable hydrocarbon 
retaining boom wherein the collapsible tube forming the boom has 
longitudinally spaced inflatable compartments insuring that a leak in one 
compartment does not adversely affect the functioning of the entire boom. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The invention comprises a collapsible, inflatable boom for confining 
hydrocarbons and other materials floatable on a liquid surface, such as 
body of water, wherein a fluid impervious inflatable tubular element of 
the boom is provided at longitudinally spaced intervals with transverse 
seals, thus separating the inflatable tube into a plurality of successive 
inflatable compartments. Within each compartment, a reactant body is 
placed prior to the sealing of the compartment, such chemicals of the type 
that, when mixed, will react to produce a gas in sufficient volume to 
effect the inflation of the respective compartment. For example, the 
chemicals could comprise sodium carbonate and acetic acid. By use of the 
term "reactant body", it is meant to refer to and include any chemical, 
chemicals or chemical compositions which when reacted or otherwise 
activated produce in situ an inflation gas for the compartments. 
In a preferred embodiment, to prevent the premature mixing of the gas 
producing chemicals, the reactant body is enclosed in pouches which are 
mounted within at least one, and preferably each of the compartments and 
preferably sealably secured at a fixed location in such compartments. Such 
pouches are preferably utilized to contain liquid chemical, and when thus 
contained, presents a total thickness greater than the thickness of the 
collapsed tube. Thus, the passage of the tube through a set of compression 
rollers as a preliminary to deployment of the tube into the body of water 
will effect the successive rupture of the pouches, resulting in the 
initiation of the reactant body in the compartments and the successive 
inflation of the compartments as the plastic tube is deployed through the 
compression rollers. 
As is known in the art, it is desirable that the inflatable tube be 
provided with a depending fin which is suitably weighted so as to maintain 
a substantially vertical position in the body of water, thus provided a 
barrier for the hydrocarbons or other material floating on the surface. In 
accordance with this invention, such barrier is provided by a second 
collapsible fluid impervious tube which is longitudinally secured to one 
edge of the compartmented tube and hence deployed into the water 
concurrently with the compartmented tube. The second tube is provided with 
a plurality of transverse seals dividing the interior of the tube into 
successive compartments. Each compartment, prior to the sealing thereof, 
is provided with a quantity of particulate material having a specific 
gravity substantially in excess of that of water, such as sand or gravel, 
which gravitates to the bottom of the second tube which is not inflated. 
Thus, the second tube is maintained in a substantially planar 
configuration depending from the inflated tube when the tubes are deployed 
into the body of water. 
In the event that the reactant body in one or more of the chemical 
containing compartments of the first mentioned tube is not activated to 
provided sufficient gas to effect the inflation of the particular 
compartment, a modification of this invention provides a third small 
diameter collapsible tube which is longitudinally secured along the first 
tube and is provided with a plurality of transversely disposed, 
collapsible plastic tubes respectively communicating between the bore of 
the small tube and the interiors of the compartments. After the collapsed 
boom is fully deployed into the water, the deployed or first off end of 
the small diameter third tube may be supplied with pressured air from an 
external source. Thus, each of the separate compartments is insured of 
being adequately inflated. Through the utilization of collapsible plastic 
tubes as the conduit connection between the pressured air tube and the 
compartmented first tube, the ends of such plastic tubes function as a 
check valve so that those compartments which achieve normal inflation 
through the activation of the reactant body to effect the compression of 
the flat ends of the connecting tubes and prevent any loss of the 
inflating gas through such tubes, but provide a secondary means for 
inflating any improperly filled compartments. 
Those skilled in the art will recognize that the aforedescribed arrangement 
permits the rapid deployment of a hydrocarbon retaining boom onto a body 
of water with the inflation of the boom being effected by a plurality of 
longitudinally separate compartments. Thus, the development of a leak in 
any one compartment will not adversely affect the performance of the boom. 
The method and apparatus of this invention has the further advantage that 
the materials employed are very inexpensive and hence the boom, once used, 
does not have to be cleaned and stored for reuse. The cleaning of 
hydrocarbon collecting booms is, as is well known, a laborious and 
expensive procedure. Additionally, ruptures of the inflatable elements 
have to be repaired. A single use boom constructed in accordance with this 
invention eliminates such cleaning and repair operations and results in a 
total cost of the hydrocarbon collecting operation not significantly 
different than that involved in the multiple use of the conventional prior 
art booms. 
Further advantages of the invention will be readily apparent to those 
skilled in the art from the following detailed description, taken in 
conjunction with the annexed sheets of drawings, on which are shown 
several preferred embodiments of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
Referring to FIG. 1, a boom 10 embodying a first modification of this 
invention comprises, in its collapsed form, top and bottom walls of an 
inflatable tube formed of fluid impervious material, which are secured 
together by heat sealing at their longitudinal edges 11a and 12a. Such 
edges are provided with a plurality of punched holes 13 by which the 
resulting collapsed tubular structure may be expeditiously fed by sprocket 
wheels during the deployment operation. 
In addition to sealing, such as by heat, of the longitudinal edges 11a and 
12a a longitudinally extending heat seal 14 is provided intermediate the 
longitudinally sealed edges. Transverse heat seals 15 are then provided 
interconnecting the longitudinal heat seal 14 with the top longitudinally 
sealed edge and dividing the upper portion of the boom assemblage into a 
plurality of longitudinally successive compartments 16. Additionally, 
transversely extending heat seals 17 are provided connecting the 
longitudinal heat seal 14 with the bottom longitudinal edge seal, thus 
defining a series of substantially larger longitudinally adjacent 
compartments 18. Each of the compartments 18 is filled with a granular 
material, such as sand or gravel, having a specific gravity substantially 
in excess of that of water and thus the successively connected 
compartments 18 define a depending fin when the boom is deployed onto a 
body of water. 
Within each of the compartments 16, a plurality of chemicals are disposed 
which, when mixed, react to produce a gas. For example, the chemicals can 
comprise granular sodium carbonate 19a and liquid acetic acid 19b, which 
when mixed, will produce significant quantities of carbon dioxide gas. In 
accordance with this invention, one of the chemicals, preferably the 
liquid chemical is enclosed within a small plastic pouch 20 which is tack 
sealed in a desired position within each of the chambers 16. The liquid 
containing pouches are preferably disposed in longitudinal alignment and 
are filled with the liquid chemical to the extent that the thickness of 
each pouch 20 exceeds that of the collapsed boom 10. Accordingly, when the 
boom 10 is passed through a pair of compressive rollers in the manner 
indicated in FIG. 6, the pouches 20 will be successively ruptured and the 
liquid chemical 19b contained therein will be released to mix with the 
granulated chemical 19a and produce sufficient carbon dioxide gas to 
effect the inflation of each of the chambers 16 as the boom 10 is 
deployed. 
Obviously, with the chemical generation of the inflating gas in each of the 
longitudinally adjacent sealed compartments 16, the boom is deployed 
without the delays that have been heretofore imposed on prior art 
structures of laboriously connecting a source of pressured air to each of 
the inflatable longitudinally adjacent compartments. 
Referring now to FIG. 2 wherein similar numerals represent structures 
similar to those disclosed in FIG. 1, there is shown a boom 10' having a 
plurality of longitudinally spaced sealed compartments 16. No chemicals 
are provided in the compartments 16, however, and the inflation of the 
individual compartments 16 is accomplished by the incorporation in the 
boom structure of a longitudinally extending, collapsible tube 30 which is 
provided with a plurality of transversely disposed connecting tubes 32 
which respectively extend into each of the compartments 16. 
When this type of boom is deployed into the water, the inflation of the 
longitudinally adjacent compartments 16 is accomplished by applying 
pressured air to the first-off end of the small diameter tube 30. Such 
pressured air is supplied through the transverse connecting tubes 32 to 
each of the longitudinally adjacent sealed compartments 16, thus effecting 
the inflation of these compartments so long as the fluid pressure is 
maintained in the small tube 30. The depending fin for this boom is formed 
in exactly the same manner as previously described in connection with FIG. 
1 by sealably provided a plurality of adjacent compartments 18 containing 
sand or gravel to effect the weighting of the compartments so that they 
maintain their collapsed condition and function as a fin projecting into 
the water beneath the inflated portions 16. 
Referring now to FIG. 3 there is shown a still further modification of this 
invention comprising a boom 10" which incorporates both of the inflation 
features of the boom 10 of FIG. 1 and boom 10' of FIG. 2. Similar numerals 
in FIG. 3 represent parts identical to those previously described in 
connection with FIGS. 1 and 2. Thus, the modification of FIG. 3 employs a 
mixture of chemicals 19a and 19b contained within each of the 
longitudinally adjacent compartments 16 to initially effect the inflation 
of compartments 16 by the rupturing of the pouch 20 containing the 
chemical liquid component 19b. The mixture of the liquid chemical 
component with the granulated component results in the production of 
sufficient gas to inflate the respective longitudinally adjacent sealed 
compartments 16. 
The advantage of the modification of FIG. 3 lies in the fact that if, for 
any reason, the mixed chemicals fail to produce sufficient gas to effect 
the inflation of a particular compartment, such compartment can be 
inflated by pressured air supplied through the first-off end of the small 
diameter tube 30 and through the connecting tube 32 extending into the 
particular compartment. Thus, it can be assured that all compartments 16 
are inflated. Those compartments wherein adequate inflation is 
accomplished by the gases produced by the chemical reaction of the mixed 
chemicals, are effectively isolated from the air pressure existing in the 
small diameter tube 30 because the internal pressure in each gas inflated 
compartment 16 will squeeze the flat ends of the connecting tubes 32 
together to prevent leakage through such tubes. Connecting tubes 32 thus 
function as check valves. 
Those skilled in the art will recognize that the various modifications of 
hydrocarbon collecting booms heretofore described each have the unique 
advantage of permitting very rapid deployment of the boom into the water 
and with the assurance that the inflation of all of the longitudinally 
adjacent sealed compartments can be accomplished during the deployment. 
Since each of the inflated compartments is relatively small, a leak 
developing in one compartment will not adversely effect the functioning of 
the boom. 
It will also be noted that the herein described hydrocarbon collecting 
booms are specifically designed for single use applications and employ 
very economical materials which significantly reduce costs of the boom 
over that of reusable booms. There is the further cost mitigating cost 
circumstance that the rapid deployment capability of booms embodying this 
invention may well result in substantially reducing the time for 
entrapping an oil spill on a body of water and the dollar value of this 
time is very significant from an environmental standpoint. 
It will also be recognized that each of the aforedescribed booms can be 
compactly stored in a folded flat condition on a vessel or wound in a flat 
collapsed condition on a reel. Either way, the speed of deployment of the 
boom is not adversely affected. 
Although the invention has been described in terms of specified embodiments 
which are set forth in detail, it should be understood that this is by 
illustration only and that the invention is not necessarily limited 
thereto, since alternative embodiments and operating techniques will 
become apparent to those skilled in the art in view of the disclosure. 
Accordingly, modifications are contemplated which can be made without 
departing from the spirit of the described invention.