Relevant Offshore Techniques? 1

[jshepard]

I work in the Defence Industry and have given a project to look at techniques for submarine atmosphere sampling.

The project is to assess methods of sampling the atmosphere of a disabled submarine (i.e. lying on the seabed) and I am hoping somebody knows of relavant oil and gas technologies that would be applicable.

When a rescue is to be attempted from a disabled submarine it is essential to know the conditions within the submarine before attaching a rescue vehicle, it can not be assumed that the submariners are capable of communicating this information.

I am searching for techniques that would be capable of penetrating the submarine hatch or pressure hull and taking a air sample without compromising the watertight integrity of the submarine and thus endangering the crew (e.g. drilling, hot tapping?).

At this stage my investigation is at a high level, but any details on any relevant techniques would be a help. Coming from a different industry, searching the entire oil and gas industry is a bit daunting so any advice would be appreciated.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards

Jeff

P.S. More details can be supplied if required.

 

[BigInch]

Wouldn't you attach a rescue vehicle to a rescue port, or escape hatch of some sort, rather than "hot tap" a new rescue access point? In which case I would assume that there is an air lock of some kind already at that rescue point, which is where you should locate a sample valve, if there isn't one there now.

Let your acquaintances be many, but your advisors one in a thousand’ ... Book of Ecclesiasticus

 

[MiketheEngineer]

Only "hot-tapping" comes to mind and I am sure with modern subs this would not be an easy task considering multiple hulls and hull materials.

Most subs have a rescue port that can be used. Before opening the rescue subs mating hatch - crack the downed subs hatch and sample. This may not be that easy to do remotely. But what if the lost subs pressure is quite high or poisoned??

Might be a reason to add a "tap" to all new subs in the future??

 

[DrillerNic]

There's the wireline cased hole pressure sampler from Schoumberger, where a remote wireline tool drills a very samll hole through the casing with a seal around it, extracts a sample of the reservoir fluid into the tool (often through a few analysers, so you can pump from the reservoir until you get interesting fluids rather than water) and then it seals up the hole with a small plug.

I've never used this tool, and I don't know anyone who has, so I don't know how effective or reliable it is. The advertising brochure is here:

http://www.slb.com/resources/other_resources/brochures/evaluation/chdt_brochure.aspx

 

[BigInch]

Or perhaps Davy Jones' locker just wasn't meant to be unlocked.

Let your acquaintances be many, but your advisors one in a thousand’ ... Book of Ecclesiasticus