Case Studies of Tank-Cleaning Projects in US Naval Shipyards using High-Pressure / High-Volume (20 ksi / 20 gpm) Waterjet
Charles Tricou, Matthew Kelly
The Applied Research Laboratory - in consultation with US Navy shipyard Code 250 and 970 personnel - designed, fabricated and supplied four (4) high-pressure / high-volume (HPHV) tank cleaning systems to the Navy. These HPHV tank cleaning systems utilize up to 20,000 psi water pressure at 20 gpm to clean tanks. The '20/20' HPHV water-jet tank cleaning process removes oil, grease and other hydrocarbons from all surfaces within otherwise difficult-to-clean tanks. These tank cleaning systems have now been used on several tank cleaning project in the US Navy. Shipyards have seen labor and schedule reductions of ~50% with substantially improved cleaning results. This presentation (and/or paper) will provide details on several tank-cleaning projects performed and executed by shipyard employees in the shipyard environment.