Development of submerged pump lift equipment for manganese nodule mining system

摘要

The pump lift equipment, namely a pumping system of slurry, supports a lift subsystem under research and development to feed a mining ship with collected manganese nodules. This equipment is installed on the middle of the mining pipe, between the collector on the deep seabed and the mining ship. It comprises a submersible high-head multistage centrifugal pump and a submersible high-voltage motor and mining pipe. To achieve a stable mining quantity and conveys slurry with high solid contents under high depth and dynamic conditions, it demands high efficiency, high reliability and long term service life, compact size, a clog free feature and advanced control system. Then we conducted various experiments, for example a study of two phase flow (solid-liquid mixture) characteristics, the lift strings structural characteristics and the pump characteristics, etc.