Mechanical Sub Sea Tunnel Cleaning
Mechanical Sub Sea Tunnel Cleaning
(OP)
Is there available a company that markets or designs/constructs a mechanical cleaning device for the internals of sub sea tunnels.
What is required is a machine to clean 2km tunnels 2.8m diameter that are 60m below the surface.
These are intake and outfall tunnels for desalination plants. The client is paranoid about biological growth and does not believe that shock chlorination can be relied upon to remove molluscs etc.
What is required is a machine to clean 2km tunnels 2.8m diameter that are 60m below the surface.
These are intake and outfall tunnels for desalination plants. The client is paranoid about biological growth and does not believe that shock chlorination can be relied upon to remove molluscs etc.





RE: Mechanical Sub Sea Tunnel Cleaning
http://www.ci.slc.ut.us/Utilities/news04062001.htm
http://www.pipepigs.com/literature.htm
RE: Mechanical Sub Sea Tunnel Cleaning
In Florida they lost the lives of divers in such circumstances. Entry into subsea tunnels is not an option.
Also launching and reciving facilites would need to be sub sea. Has this been done before?
RE: Mechanical Sub Sea Tunnel Cleaning
I wouldnt eliminate conventional divers immediately. I remember many years ago reading about a flooded mine that sent divers down a flooded shaft 300 metres + and then they had to go laterally along a tunnel to close a valve that had been left in the wrong position. Your problem would be trivial compared to what those men had to achieve and it was done sucessfully.
And I have done some work on the intake tunnels of water treatment plants. Your client's concerns might not be over stated. I didnt have barnacles to deal with but there were some impressive algae type growths that appeared to me to be potentially cancerous but I was assured that growths like this were not cancerous but were not uncommon... this in a clean drinking water supply system!!!!!!!!
RE: Mechanical Sub Sea Tunnel Cleaning
The idea of dewatering the tunnel in order to clean it is not favoured by the client but is capable of being achieved.
RE: Mechanical Sub Sea Tunnel Cleaning
Im not a diver but I believe that 60 metres depth is relatively trivial but the 2 km distance will cause safety concerns. All recreational and commercial divers work on a buddy system and at 2.4 metres diameter at least you have the room for two(or more) men to work in close proximity. If for any reason this is not acceptable I believe there are small submersible craft.. essentially mini submarines that might be small enough... these might be manned or completely remote control. Whether they can travel in reverse I dont know.
If this is impractical are there any sections of the tunnel where you could set up a drill on land and drill down into at least one point in the tunnel. Conventional mining diamond drills will give you a three inch hole very easily with a 2,4 metre target only 60-100 metres away.
If this is practical , I am sure some sort of steerable camera is available, altho Ive never had cause to try this.
You could then investigate the use of compressed air to scour the walls.... hopefully by remote control because visibility for divers would be zero.
Does any of this make sense or am I stating the obvious???
RE: Mechanical Sub Sea Tunnel Cleaning
Yes that is the sort of brainstorming I have been doing. I was hoping that there was specialist manufacturer out there somewhere who had done it before.
Camera equipment is petty small these days and robots can be created that can be put into the tunnel and allowed to travel with the flow.
Perhaps conventional pigging may be the answer. Just have to design the launch and receivel facilities.
RE: Mechanical Sub Sea Tunnel Cleaning
http://
http:/
You probably can use a ROV instead of divers. The sea side pipe will have to have some type of screen over the end of the pipe.
RE: Mechanical Sub Sea Tunnel Cleaning
RE: Mechanical Sub Sea Tunnel Cleaning
ROVs that"fly" would tend to bounce off the walls.
Tracked / wheeled vehicles would be the way to go with a winch for recovery in case of breakdown.
Otherwise winched scrapers would work. You would have to use the water flow or a tracked vehicles to get a pilot line through and then I would suggest Dyneema rope for the pulling.
Stephen Argles
Land & Marine
www.landandmarine.com
RE: Mechanical Sub Sea Tunnel Cleaning
http://www.hibbardinshore.com/index.html
http://www.nwuwconst.com/subs/remote_vehicles.html
RE: Mechanical Sub Sea Tunnel Cleaning
We do not only want to inpsect but mechanically clean?
RE: Mechanical Sub Sea Tunnel Cleaning
RE: Mechanical Sub Sea Tunnel Cleaning
http://www.eng-tips.com/threadminder.cfm?pid=321
http://www.eng-tips.com/threadminder.cfm?pid=311
If you "heard" it on the internet, it's guilty until proven innocent. - DCS
http://www.eng-tips.com/supportus.cfm
RE: Mechanical Sub Sea Tunnel Cleaning
Could you use water jet cleaning?
This is used subsea for cleaning marine growth off platforms and subsea facilities. Most soft marine growth can be cleaned off by hand fairly easily, but you would need something more substantial for encrustations. This would still need some means of delivery over the 2km.
RE: Mechanical Sub Sea Tunnel Cleaning
htt
RE: Mechanical Sub Sea Tunnel Cleaning
http://www.ci.slc.ut.us/Utilities/news04062001.htm
h
http://www