Determining the Rational Immersion Depth of a Mining Complex Capsule for Underwater Mining of Ferromanganese Nodules

摘要

The article discusses the extraction of solid mineral resources (SMR) from the bottom, such as ferromanganese nodules (FMN) and cobalt-manganese crusts (CMC), occurring in both offshore and deep regions of the World Ocean. For separating and lifting the water surface is used mining complex, which includes a hydraulically dragheads and intermediate capsule with atmospheric pressure introduced into the of extraction process in order to increase energy efficiency through the organization of a two-stage hydroascent, the first stage is carried out by external hydrostatic pressure. To determine the optimum depth of immersion of the intermediate capsule composed mathematical model. It is based on the sustainable hydroascent provided at the first stage transport (from the bottom to capsule), and reducing power consumption slurry pump performing the second stage transport (from the capsule to the sea surface). In determining the rational immersion depth were taken into account design features of slurry pipeline, mine geological parameters, the parameters of extracted minerals, performance of dragheads, the slurry flow parameters, such as concentration, consistency, density. Presents an example calculation and determined the optimal capsule insertion depth for offshore geological environments.