A Cutting Model for Drum Cutter for Deep Ocean Cobalt Crust

摘要

Deep ocean cobalt crust is about 5cm thick and as hard as coal. For mining the crust, a drum cutter similar to that for mining coal was conceived. A cutting model was proposed to describe the cutting process of a single tooth, the forces on the tooth were analyzed and the cutting force was calculated. The model and the analysis will be of great help to the design of the drum cutter upon taking into account the associated engineering issues and equipment design in operating 800.3000 m depth in the ocean.