• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.463-473
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• 2010

Inshore tests were performed in order to verify the design concept of deep sea manganese nodule miner at a site near Hupo at East Sea of Korea in June of 2009. Total mining tests of the test miner, named 'Minero$^{(R)}$', together with flexible hose, lifting pump and lifting hose were accomplished. In this study, the performances of three subsystems of testminer (vehicle, pick-up device, and launch-and-recovery device) were analyzed for feasibility assessment of self-propelled remotely controlled miner, and also to compile basic data for designing a pilotminer. Performances of the test miner were defined based on the Functional Requirements of Axiomatic Design. The inshore tests revealed that the test miner generally satisfies the functional performances. Feasibility assessment and reflection on results are discussed within.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.195-203
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• 2010

This paper concerns about total dynamic analysis of integrated mining system. This system consists of vertical steel pipe, intermediate buffer station, flexible pipe and self-propelled miner. The self-propelled miner and buffer are assumed as rigid-body of 6-dof. Discrete models of vertical steel pipe and flexible pipe are adopted, which are obtained by means of lumped-parameter method. The motion of mining vessel is not considered. Instead, the motion of mining vessel is taken into account in form of various boundary conditions (e.g. forced excitation in slow motion and/or fast oscillation and so on). A terramechanics model of extremely cohesive soft soil is applied to the self-propelled miner. Hinged and ball constraints are used to define the connections between sub-systems (vertical steel pipe, buffer, flexible pipe, self-propelled miner). Equations of motion of the coupled model are derived with respect to the each local coordinates system. Four Euler parameters are used to express the orientations of the sub-systems. To solve the equations of motion of the total dynamic model, an incremental-iterative formulation is employed. Newmark-${\beta}$ method is used for time-domain integration. The total dynamic responses of integrated mining system are investigated.

• Proceedings of the Korea Committee for Ocean Resources and Engineering Conference
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.311-314
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• 2006

This paper concerns about total dynamic analysis of integrated mining system. This system consists of vertical steel pipe, intermediate buffer station, flexible pipe and self-propelled miner. The self-propelled miner and buffer are assumed as rigid-body of 6-dof. Discrete models of vertical steel pipe and flexible pipe are adopted, which are obtained by means of lumped-parameter method. The motion of mining vessel is not considered. Instead, the motion of mining vessel is taken into account in form of various boundary conditions (e.g. forced excitation in slow motion and/or fast oscillation and so on). A terramechanics model of extremely soft cohesive soil is applied to the self-propelled miner. The hydrodynamic forces and moments are included in the dynamic models of vehicle and lifting pipe system. Hinged and fixed constraints are used to define the connections between sub-systems (vertical steel pipe, buffer, flexible pipe, miner). Equations of motion of the coupled model are derived with respect to the each local coordinates system. Four Euler parameters are used to express the orientations of the sub-systems. To solve the equations of motion of the total dynamic model, an incremental-iterative formulation is employed. Newmark-b method is used for time-domain integration. The total dynamic responses of integrated mining system are investigated.

• Proceedings of the Korea Committee for Ocean Resources and Engineering Conference
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.315-318
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• 2006

This paper concerns about coupled dynamic analysis of the deep-seabed mining system in launching operation. The dynamic behavior of mining system consisting of lifting pipe, buffer station, flexible conduit and self-propelled miner is simulated in time domain. The launching operation is divided into four critical phases: (1) deployment of miner and flexible conduit, (2) deployment of lifting pipe, flexible conduit and miner, (3) touch-down of miner, (4) final launching. The dynamic responses of sub-systems - miner, flexible conduit, buffer and lifting pipe - are analyzed in each launching phase. According to the changing periods of forced excitation at the top, the dynamic responses of sub-systems are diverse in their characteristics. It has been shown that the total integrated responses of sub-systems are strongly affected by the design parameters. Especially, the principal dimensions of flexible conduit seem to be significant in determining of the global response. Based on the simulation results, safe operation conditions are investigated.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.41-46
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• 2012

A deep-sea manganese nodule miner consists of 4 parts: the pickup device, crusher, disposal device, and tracked vehicle. The tracked vehicle is an essential component to keep the self-propelled miner moving across deep-sea soil. The performances of the tracked vehicle are influenced by noise factors: the shear strength of the seafloor, bottom current, seafloor slope, track speed, reaction forces of flexible hose, etc. It is necessary to adopt a robust design method that improves the performances and minimizes the variation caused by noise factors. Taguchi's method, the most widely known robust design method, searches for the robust optimum using an orthogonal array composed of the product of the inner array and outer array. In this paper, we propose a new screening technique to reduce the number of input factors and apply the MRSN (Multi-Response Signal to Noise) ratio to convert multiple performances into single one in order to overcome the difficulties and limitations of using Taguchi's method in a case with many input factors and multiple performances. A test miner was already designed and tested. It has about 1/10 the capacity of a commercial one and was successfully operated at an in-shore area. Taguchi's robust design was applied to the tracked vehicle of the test miner, and design improvements were implemented for the vehicle.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.487-494
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• 2014

Deep-seabed test miner operated by a self-propelled mining system moving on soft soil is an essential device to secure floating and towing performances. The performances of the tracked vehicle are seriously influenced by noise factors such as the shear strength of the seafloor, bottom current, seafloor slope, speed of tracked vehicle, reaction forces of flexible hose, steering ratio, etc. Due to uncertainties related to noise factors, the design of a deep-sea manganese nodules test miner that satisfies target reliabilities is difficult. Therefore, reliability-based design optimization (RBDO) is required to guarantee system reliability under circumstances where uncertainties related to noise factors prevail. Among noise factors, the bottom current, a bimodal distribution, is censored due to the observation limit of measurement devices. Therefore, estimated distribution of the bottom current is inaccurate without considering these characteristics and the result of RBDO cannot be guaranteed. In this paper, we define censored data as unknown values over the limit of observation. If this data is estimated by using Akaike information criterion (AIC) that cannot consider the characteristics of censored data, the distribution of estimated data cannot guarantee accurate reliability. Therefore, censored AIC that can consider the characteristics of data is used to estimate accurate distribution of the bottom current. Finally, RBDO, under circumstances where uncertainties related to noise factors combined censored data are present, is performed on the mobility of a deep-sea manganese nodules test miner.