Imagine a new ship-to-shore fluid transfer system that takes advantage of the small size and fast-deploying features of the Navys Amphibious Bulk Liquid Transfer System (ABLTS), and which adds the operational longevity and security features of a submarine ship-to-shore pipeline. Global Aerospace Corporation, in collaboration with their research partners, proposes to develop a sinking hose system to provide this enhanced capability for the Navys Logistics Over-The-Shore (LOTS) liquid cargo operations. The system will sink when filled with working fluid. The hose system will possess the necessary density for stable operation on the seafloor, up to sea state 4. The new submersible hose system will significantly extend service life and operational availability, enabling cost savings and reduced waste, while also maintaining the expeditionary nature and rapid deployment of ABLTS. From the Navys perspective, our concept looks and behaves like a heavier ABLTS which sinks upon deployment. The floating nature of the current ABLTS greatly reduces its service life and exposes the hose to weather, UV, collision, and sabotage risks. To overcome these weaknesses, our concept will quickly adapt the Navys ABLTS designs for submarine operation.
Benefit: The Navy needs a rapidly-installable bulk fuel transfer system for logistics over-the-shore (LOTS) operations which has significantly improved service life and operational availability compared with the current ABLTS hose, overcoming its vulnerabilities to weather, collisions, and sabotage. With an innovative sinking hose solution, the Navy will be able to sustain ABLTS operation for up to 365 continuous days, operate in sea state 4, and will no longer need to continually patrol and repair the hoseline. Such an upgrade to ABLTS significantly reduces operational risk, expands its capabilities and affords the Navy greater reliability and flexibility in executing its LOTS missions. The need for durable, fast-deploying submarine hose is not only limited to the Navy. Several commercial applications requiring near-shore and off-shore fuel and fluid product transfer will benefit from a fast-installing layflat sinking hose. Applications include offshore oil and gas production and offloading, offshore rig supply, fuel and chemical cargo transfer, ocean-based desalination, water treatment discharge, and various others. The rapid deployment of layflat hose in demanding land-based environments has been demonstrated. However, layflat hoses carrying buoyant fluids suffer critical vulnerabilities when used at sea, and methods of submerging hose for stable operation on the seabed have not been reduced to practice. Thus, large, heavy, and labor-intensive pipeline solutions are often chosen which are over-designed, using simplistic stability analyses and mitigation schemes which lead to added weight, volume, and installation time. The use of high fidelity hydrodynamic simulation can help in developing a viable sinking layflat hose, bringing transportability, fast deployment and recovery, low operating costs, and long service life to meet the challenges of fluid transfer in sea and shore environments.
Keywords: sea state 4, sea state 4, Amphibious Construction Battalion, Liquid Cargo, hose reel, expeditionary, Logistics Over-The-Shore, Fuel hose, Layflat hose
