• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.178-188
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• 2003

A study on the dynamic analysis of a tracked vehicle for mining on deep-sea bed with very soft soil is presented. An equation for the interaction between track and soft soil is employed to develop a track/soil interaction module called TVAS. The vehicle is modeled as a multi-body dynamic system using a multi-body dynamic analysis program. The developed module is incorporated into the multi-body dynamic analysis program with a user subroutine. The dynamic behavior and design of the mining vehicle on deep-sea bed is investigated.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.529-543
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• 2003

Deep-sea surface sediments, acquired from 1997 to 2002 in the Clarion-Clipperton fracture zone of the northeast equatorial Pacific, were analyzed for index and geotechnical properties to provide background information for the design of manganese nodule minor. The sediments were classified into 16 types based on the measured properties and evaluated in terms of miner maneuverabillity and potential environmental impacts arising from mining activities. It was found that the middle part of the study area covered with coarse siliceous sediments is more favorable to the commercial production than the northern part of pelagic red clay. In particular, Area B2 in the middle part is considered the best mining site since it shows the highest abundance as well as it consists mostly of normally to over consolidated (types B, C, D) coarse siliceous sediments that are appropriate for effective minor movement and accompany weak environmental impacts. Taking account of all the analyzed core logs, the average shear-strength values are proposed as a practical guideline fur movements of a manganese nodule miner: 6.0 kPa at 10cm and 7.0kPa at 40cm below the seabed.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.475-485
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• 2014

Seawater flow characteristics around a manganese nodule mining device in deep sea were analyzed through numerical investigation. The mining device influences the seawater flow field with complicated velocity distributions, and they are largely dependent on the seawater flow speed, device moving speed, and injection velocity from the collecting part. The flow velocity and turbulent kinetic energy distributions are compared at several positions from the device rear, side, and top, and it is possible to predict the distance from which the mining device affects the seawater flow field through the variation of turbulent kinetic energy. With the operation of the collecting device the turbulent kinetic energy remarkably increases, and it gradually decreases along the seawater flow direction. Turbulent kinetic energy behind the mining system increases with the seawater flow velocity. The transient behavior of nodule particles, which are not collected, is also predicted. This study will be helpful in creating an optimal design for a manganese nodule collecting device that can operate efficiently and which is eco-friendly.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.367-371
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• 2014

In early 1990s, the Korean government has launched a deep-sea research program to secure the stable long-term supply of strategic metallic minerals including Cr, Cu and Ni. Through the pioneering surveys, Korea registered $150,000km^2$ of Mn-nodule field in the Clarion-Clipperton area, the NE equatorial Pacific to the international sea-bed authority (ISA) in 1994. Following the ISA exploration code, the final exclusive exploration area of $75,000km^2$ was assigned in 2002, based on results of eight-year researches of chemico-physical properties of nodules, bottom profiles and sediment properties. Since that time, environmental studies, mining technical developments including robot miner and lifting system and establishment of smelting systems were accompanied with the detailed geophysical studies to decipher the priori mining area until 2009. Major points of the recent Korea Mn-nodule program are deployed on a commercial scale until 2015. In order to meet the goals, we developed a 1/5 scaled robot miner compared to commercial one in 2012 and performed a mining test at the water depth of 1,370 m in 2013. In addition, detailed 25,000 scaled mining maps in the priori area, which can provide operation roots of the miner, will be prepared and an environmental-friendly mining strategy will be pursued based on the environmental impact test and environmental monitoring.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.155-164
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• 1995

The kriging model, one of the geostatistical models, has been used to evaluate the deep-sea manganese nodule deposits until now. The distribution of the manganese nodule deposits estimated by the model shows the smooth surface as well as much difference from the actual distribution. Subsequently, it estimates the deposit distribution roughly in terms of the limited data of surveyed zone. Therefore, this paper presents the interpretation methodology of the deep-sea manganese nodule deposit distribution by using the fractal model to overcome the problems caused by the geostatistical model. Also, the manganese nodule distributions are interpreted by using the manganese nodule data sampled in the GH82-4 zone, west longitude $165^{\circ}40^{\prime}-169^{\circ}00^{\prime}$, and south latitude $0^{\circ}00^{\prime}-2^{\circ}40^{\prime}$ neighboring Nova-Canton Trough in the Pacific Ocean which was surveyed by the Geological Survey of Japan in 1982.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.20 no.3 s.70
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• pp.54-60
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• 2006

For optimal design of a deep-sea ocean mining collector system, based on self-propelled mining vehicle, it is imperative to develop and validate the dynamic model of a tracked vehicle traveling on soft deep seabed. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the fidelity of the dynamic simulation model by means of response surface methodology. Various statistical techniques related to response surface methodology, such as outlier analysis, detection of interaction effect, analysis of variance, inference of the significance of design variables, and global sensitivity analysis, are examined. To obtain a plausible response surface model, maximum entropy sampling is adopted. From statistical analysis and prediction for dynamic responses of the tracked vehicle, conclusions will be drawn about the accuracy of the dynamic model and the performance of the response surface model.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.526-534
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• 2016

This study had the goal of designing onboard structures for a pre-pilot mining test (PPMT), which is required for the commercialization of the deep-sea mining industry. This PPMT is planned to validate the performance of a hydraulic lifting system and verify the concept of operating through a moon-pool in the east sea, Korea. All of the onboard equipment and facility were designed by KRISO. Because the test was performed at the first development, it is difficult to determine what risk will occur in the facility. Therefore, risk-based design is required in the facility for the PPMT, which includes the facility layout, failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA), and risk reduction plan. All of the expected performances of the lifting system itself and the onboard facilities were qualitatively validated using the risk-based design.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.83 no.6
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• pp.835-851
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• 2022

This paper analyzes the variation law of the pipe lateral vibration characteristics, it was treated as a beam model, and was dispersed into several subunits based on the FEM. The corresponding stiffness and mass matrix of the pipe was deduced by using Hermite interpolation function, and the overall dynamic balance equation was established. The lateral vibration under different pipe lengths, thicknesses and towing speeds are solved by integral method. The results show that the pipe vibration trend decreases first and then increases, and the vibration value at the ore bin is larger than that at the pump set, and the value at the top is the largest, and the least value location can change with the length increase. Increasing length and thickness can reduce lateral vibration value, while increasing speed can increase the value. Neither the thickness nor the towing speed will change the location where the least value occurs. The vibration intensity will increase with the decrease of pipe length and thickness and the increase of towing speed.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.252-259
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• 2008

The deep-sea mining system is generally composed of surface vessel, lifting system, buffer, flexible pipe and miner. The mining system can be regarded as a large-scale system in which each subsystem is interconnected to other ones. In order to control a large-scale system, decentralized control approaches have been proposed recently. In this paper, as a basic study on application of decentralized control, firstly, the mining system was modeled in a simplified way. Lifting system and buffer were regarded as a spherical pendulum and the flexible pipe was taken as a two-dimensional linear spring connection. Based on the simplified model dynamics, the mining system can be decentralized two subsystems, the one consisting of surface vessel, lifting system and buffer, and the other, the miner. Next, this paper proposed the design of controller for each decentralized subsystem by regarding the interacting terms as disturbances. The controllers kept the constant distance between two subsystems during the miner was moving on the specified track. Finally, the efficiency of proposed controller was proven through the numerical simulation of the derived model.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.423-435
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• 2014

Verifying the similarity of environmental characteristics between an artificial impact site and a preserved or reference site is necessary to quantitatively and qualitatively evaluate the environmental impact of mining activity. Although an impact site (BIS station) and a preserved site (called KOMO station) that have been selected in the Korea manganese nodule contract area may share similar environmental characteristics, similarities in terms of the water column environment between both sites has not been investigated. In this study, we compared the chemical properties of the water columns and sinking particle fluxes between BIS and KOMO stations through two observations (August 2011 and September 2012). Additionally, we observed particle fluxes at the KOMO station for five years (July 2003~July 2008) to understand long-term natural variability. Vertical distributions of water column properties such as dissolved oxygen, inorganic nutrients (N, P, Si), total organic carbon below surface layer (within the depth range of 200 m) were not considerably different between the two sites. Especially, values of water column parameters in the abyssopelagic zone from 4000 m to bottom layer (~5000 m) were very similar between the BIS and KOMO sites. Sinking particle fluxes from the two sites also showed similar seasonality. However, natural variation of particle flux at the KOMO site varied from 3.5 to $129.9mg\;m^{-2}day^{-1}$, with a distinct temporal variation originating from ENSO events (almost forty times higher than a minimum value). These results could provide valuable information to more exactly evaluate the environmental impact of mining activity on water columns.