• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.128-134
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• 2015

Axial vibration analysis is very important for a deep-seabed mining system. In this study, an axial vibration analysis was carried out to estimate the natural frequencies and tensions of the umbilical cable using experimental data obtained from the first pre-pilot mining test. The axial vibrations of the umbilical cable with a pilot mining robot at the bottom end were analytically determined. The range of the added mass coefficients of the pilot mining robot is estimated by comparing the experimental and analytical data. The natural frequencies and maximum tensions are calculated using four estimated added mass coefficients.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.66-73
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• 2012

A pressure compensated chamber of a pilot mining robot isolates and protects an electrical-electronic system from the ambient highly pressured water. Since the inner pressure of the chamber is compensated with outer water pressure using hydraulic oil and pressure compensator, there exists a pressure difference, less than 1 bar, between outer and inner surface. The structural safety of the chamber is obtained relatively easier than the canister type which inner pressure is kept as the atmospheric pressure. However, due to the adoption of box shape for space efficiency and usage of the transparent engineering plastic viewport for checking inner circumstance, the viewport can be largely deformed. This large deformation can cause an additional tensile force, called the prying force, to the bolt-flange connection parts of the viewport. In this paper, we suggest the structural design equation considering the prying action for designing the structure of a box-shape pressure compensated chamber.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.152-159
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• 2014

KRISO(Korea Research Institute of Ships & Ocean Engineering) designed and manufactured a pilot mining robot called "MineRo" in 2012. MineRo is composed of four track modules. In general, much time and money are needed for deep-sea tests. Therefore, a numerical analysis to predict the dynamic behaviors has to be performed before a deep-sea test. In the numerical analysis, the information about the mining robot and soil properties are the most important factors to analyze the driving performance and dynamic response of MineRo. A terra-mechanics model of extremely cohesive soft soil is implemented in the form of the relationships between the normal pressure and sinkage, and between the shear stress and shear displacement. It is possible to acquire information about MineRo from the CAD model in the design phase. The Wong model is applied to the terra-mechanics model. This model is necessary to acquire many soil coefficients for a numerical analysis. However, in soil testing, the amount of soil property data obtained is limited. Moreover, it is difficult to analyze all of the cases for the many soil coefficients. In this paper, the dynamic behaviors of MineRo are analyzed according to the driving velocity, steering ratio, and variable extremely cohesive soft soil properties using a table of orthogonal arrays. The dynamic responses of MineRo are the turning radius, sinkage, and slip ratio. The relationships between the dynamic responses and variable soil properties are derived for MineRo.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.73-80
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• 2015

In order to determine the appropriate volume of the a pressure compensator of deep seabed mining robots, this paper reports on an experimental test for oil volume change in an oil-filled box. At the design stage of underwater robots, it is crucial to determine the capacity of the hydraulic compensator which is replenished as much as the contracted oil volume of the robots. A pilot mining robot, MienRo was designed to work under 6,000 m in the deep sea. The hydraulic actuating oil and pressure compensating oil of MineRo may be exposed at a hydrostatic pressure environment of 600 bar. Although the oil can be assumed to be incompressible, its volume is actually changed under high pressure conditions due to air contained in the oil and oil contraction. To determine the capacity of the pressure compensator, the oil contraction rate should be verified through an experimental test using a hyperbaric chamber.