Publication

Abstract : The deep ocean is enriched with abundant mineral resources like polymetallic nodules (from 6000m water depth), cobalt rich manganese crust and hydrothermal deposits which has high demand in aerospace industry. For utilizing these minerals, the deep ocean mining system has been developed. The project mainly aims in the design of chassis for the underwater mining machine for the extraction of manganese nodules. The current mining machine is rated for 500 meter water depth and is tested successfully. In order to increase the depth rating and to reduce the weight of the existing chassis, new materials are considered as an alternative which helps to reduce the additional buoyancy packs required and causes the reduction of vehicle drag. This can be achieved by replacing the existing material and utilize the new materials such as composites. Also the corrosion resistance is an added advantage for composites. Implementing composites as structural elements in underwater mining machine poses various challenges to the structural analyst because of the complex structure of chassis, loading conditions and fabrication difficulties. In this work, the study of the existing chassis was done and its static analysis was performed. Also study on composite was performed and the chance of using it as structural elements for underwater mining machine was conducted. And found out that composite can be used an alternative material for the chassis.