Patent GB-1147747-A (GB)
Title: Method, device and assembly for anchoring offshore pipelines
IPC: F16L3/04
Filed: 1967-06-29
Abstract: 1,147,747. Laying subaqueous pipelines, shaft couplings. A. B. CHANCE CO. 29 June, 1967 [13 July, 1966], No. 30042/67. Headings F2P and F2U. In a method of securing a pipe 16 to the earthen surface 18 underlying a body of water so that shifting and floating of the pipe is prevented without resorting to the use of a weighted pipe or trenches, an anchoring assembly 14, including a pipe spanning-structure 38 adapted to be held tightly in place against the pipe 16 by a pair of screw anchors 22, 24 having helices 28, 34 inclined in opposite directions, is positioned over the pipe 16 with the screw anchors located on opposite sides of the pipe and the anchors are simultaneously rotated in opposite directions to drive them into the earth, the rotational torque of one anchor being offset by the rotational torque of the other. The anchors 22, 24 are rotatably mounted by means of split-bush assemblies 50 in outwardly extending-flanges 40 of the bracket structure 38 and have quick-release spigot- and-socket connections 102 respectively with the drive shafts 100 of hydraulic motors 78, 78, which have gear boxes 98, 98, and which are laterally adjustably mounted in brackets 86 at the base of a buoyancy chamber 84 in an anchor driving device 12. In order to clamp the pipe 16 to the surface 18 an anchoring assembly 14 is connected to the driving device 12, the position of a standpipe 182 in the buoyancy chamber 84 being adjusted so that the effective weight of the apparatus is approximately 25- 50 lb., i.e. slightly less than the under water weight of the anchoring assembly 14. The apparatus is then lowered, by means of a cable 210, until the ends 22a, 24a of the anchor touch the surface 18 one on each side of the pipe 16. A diver (216), Fig. 8, not shown, then grasps handles 132, 178 to start the anchor driving operation, the left hand end of handle 132 being first pulled downwardly so that a lever 130 is rotated in an anticlockwise direction and a valve 128 feeds hydraulic fluid from a supply pipe 124 to a manifold 96 which leads, by means of pipes 94, 94, to the motors 78, 78. The lever 130 is held in the " ON " position by a spring-loaded lever 138, a detent 144 on which engages behind a pin 146, and the anchors 22, 24 are driven by the motors 78, 78 in opposite directions. Air is bled out of the chamber 84 by manipulating the handle 178 connected to the lever 176 of a valve 174 controlling a compressed air supply pipe 170 so that the effective weight of the driving device 12 is progressively increased to supplement the downward thrust of the anchors 22, 24 as they screw into the surface 18. The anchor-driving operation proceeds until the bight of the bracket 38 contacts the pipe 16 the foot 166 of a sensor rod 162 also contacting the pipe 16 so that the rod 162 releases the lever 138 which rotates in a clockwise direction to cut-off the supply of hydraulic fluid to the motors 78, 78, upward movement of the lever being limited as a hooked tip of the lever engages a peg 158. At the same time hooks 114, 114, on the drive shafts 100, 100 bear upon the upper faces of the splitbush assemblies 50, to move them out of engagement with heads 106, 106 near the upper ends of the anchors 22, 24 so that the anchoring assembly is released. The handle 178 is again manipulated to operate the valve 174 so that compressed air is fed into the chamber 84 to the level of the lower end of the stand pipe 182 and the anchor driving device 12 exhibits buoyancy so that the upper ends of the anchors 22, 24 are withdrawn from the sockets in the drive shafts 100, 100. With the driving device 12 now completely released the valve 174 is again operated to bleed air from the chamber 84 so that the driving device is given a slightly positive effective weight and the driving device can be raised for another anchoring device 14 to be attached to the shafts 100, 100. A work slip (126), Fig. 8, not shown, can be moved along the line of the pipe (16) by reeling in and paying out respectively cables (196, 202) which are anchored to the sea bed adjacent the pipe (16) and extend from sheaves (188, 192) at the bow and stern of the ship. The apparatus (10) can be lowered to locate an anchoring assembly 14 over a previously marked position on the pipe 16. The manifold 96 preferably incorporates an internal flow divider so that the shafts 100, 100, are rotated at substantially the same speed regardless of the resistance to rotation encountered by the anchors 22, 24.