A comparative study on kinetics and dynamics of two dump truck lifting mechanisms using MATLAB simscape

In this paper,two lifting mechanism models with opposing placements,which use the same hydraulic hoist model and have the same angle of 50°,have been developed.The mechanical and hydraulic simulation models are established using MATLAB Simscape to analyze their kinetics and dynamics in the lifting and holding stages.The simulation findings are compared to the analytical calculation results in the steady state,and both methods show good agreement.In the early lifting stage,Model 1 produces greater force and discharges goods in the container faster than Model 2.Meanwhile,Model 2 reaches a higher force and ejects goods from the container cleaner than its counterpart at the end lifting stage.The established simulation models can consider the effects of dynamic loads due to inertial moments and forces generated during the system operation.It is crucial in studying,designing,and optimizing the structure of hydraulic-mechanical systems.

Automatic lifting system design and application of large load powered support test rig

This paper presented a design of an automatic lifting system. It is used for large load powered support and improves the old method wherein powered support lifting depends on manual control. This system applies a high accuracy gear shunt motor to match the flow for 4 lifting cylinders, and also allocates bypass throttles to realize automatic lifting. Through the dis- placement sensor feedback the height deviation among 4 lifting cylinders during the whole lifting process, when the deviation is up to the sitting value, the corresponding bypass throttle is operated immediately to reduce the deviation, so that the moving platform of the powered support would not be stuck. Through real application, it is shown that this system can realize automatic lifting of powered support; the lifting speed is controlled between 5 and 10 mm/s, and the final aligning accuracy is up to 1 mm.

Trajectory synchronization of multi-cylinder electrohydraulic lift system with huge load

A kind of four degree-of-freedom （DOF） electrohydraulic lift system is studied in this pa- per, after analyzing the motion characteristics and the mathematic model of the hydraulic cylinders, a cross-coupled synchronization method with load force and synchronization error feedback had been proposed to solve the synchronization problem encountered when realizing the needed roll and pitch attitude of the lift system. In this paper, mathematic model of asymmetric hydraulic cylinder was es- tablished and the lift system had been simplified to a dual-cylinder system. By incorporating the load force and the displacement of each cylinder, a cross-coupled synchronized control method was pro- posed to fit each cylinder＇ s tracking performance and multi-cylinder＇ s trajectory synchronization property. The proposed method not only solved the synchronization problem when multi-cylinder had a same trajectory, but also could fit the coordinated synchronization need when different trajectories of multi-cylinder were desired. Simulations and experiments on a four DOF electrohydraulic lift sys- tem with load of 100 tons verified the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Experimental Investigation on Vertical Hydraulic Transport of Ores in Deepsea Mining

Deepsea mining has been proposed since the 1960s to alleviate the lack of resources on land.Vertical hydraulic transport of collected ores from the seabed to the sea surface is considered the most promising method for industrial applications.In the present study,an indoor model test of the vertical hydraulic transport of particles was conducted.A noncontact optical method has been proposed to measure the local characteristics of the particles inside a vertical pipe,including the local concentration and particle velocity.The hydraulic gradient of ore transport was evaluated with various particle size distributions,particle densities,feeding concentrations and mixture flow velocities.During transport,the local concentration is larger than the feeding concentration,whereas the particle velocity is less than the mixture velocity.The qualitative effects of the local concentration and local fluid velocity on the particle velocity and slip velocity were investigated.The local fluid velocity contributes significantly to particle velocity and slip velocity,whereas the effect of the local concentration is marginal.A higher feeding concentration and mixture flow velocity result in an increased hydraulic gradient.The effect of the particle size gradation is slight,whereas the particle density plays a crucial role in the transport.

Hole cleaning evaluation and installation spacing optimization of cuttings bed remover in extended-reach drilling

In extended-reach or long-horizontal drilling,cuttings usually deposit at the bottom of the annulus.Once cuttings accumulate to a certain thickness,complex problems such as excessive torque and drag,tubing buckling,and pipe stuck probably occur,which results in a lot of non-productive time and remedial operations.Cuttings bed remover can efficiently destroy deposited cuttings in time through hydraulic and mechanical stirring effects.This paper aims to build a method for hole cleaning evaluation and installation spacing optimization of cuttings bed remover to improve the wellbore cleaning effect.Firstly,a Computational Fluid Dynamics approach with Eulerian—Eulerian multiphase model was utilized to investigate the mechanism of cuttings transportation,and a new type of cuttings bed remover was designed.Next,an evaluation method of hole cleaning effect of remover was established.After that,the effects of several drilling parameters on hole cleaning including flow rate of drilling fluid,rotational speed of drillpipe,rate of penetration,wellbore size,rheological property of drilling fluid,and remover eccentricity on the performance of cuttings bed remover were investigated.The results demonstrate that the new type of remover with streamline blade performs better than conventional removers.The efficiency of hole cleaning is greatly improved by increasing the rotational speed of drillpipe,flow rate of drilling fluid,remover eccentricity,and 6 rpm Fann dial reading for drilling fluid.While higher rate of penetration and large wellbore size result in worse hole cleaning.These findings can serve as an important guide for the structure optimization design of cuttings bed remover and installation spacing of removers.

Research on Hydraulic Block Scenarios in the Land Conservation Zone of the Headwaters Area of Jinshu Bay

[Objective] The aim was to study the hydraulic block scenarios in the water source land conservation zone in Jinshu Bay so as to ensure the water quality in the water sources in Jinshu Bay.[Method] By dint of one dimension water amount and water quality mode in the river net in Taihu,the water flow movement characteristics and pollutants transportation rules in the water sources areas in Jinshu Bay under five kinds of hydraulic block scenarios were compared and discussed.[Result] After demolishing the temporary soil dam in the water source conservation zone in Jinshu Bay,water amount and pollutants increased and water quality deteriorated.It was necessary to take certain hydraulic power to block and control the pollutants in the preservation area;after demolishing the dam,there was less water amount and pollutants.The water quality improved significantly.The hydraulic block facility in the preservation area and its surroundings were all releasing and not introducing;the one along the mouth of the river of Mentianji Gang,Jinshugang and Longtanggang were introducing and not releasing,which only restricted poor-quality water in Beijing-Hangzhou Canal and Huguang Canal flowing into the conservation zone.The water into the conservation zone was all from Gonghu.The water mobility within the conservation zone was good.The regional water quality improved to the largest scale.[Conclusion] Judging from the water flow movement characteristics and pollutants transportation rules in Jinshu Bay,the fifth proposal was more appropriate.

Advances and challenges in hydraulic fracturing of tight reservoirs: A critical review

The hydraulic fracturing technology has been widely utilized to extract tight resources.Hydraulic frac-turing involves rock failures,complex fracture generation,proppant transport and fracture closure.All these behaviors affect the productivity of fractured wells.In this work,the advances and challenges in hydraulic fracturing development of tight reservoirs are summarized from following aspects:the hy-draulic fracture propagation,the proppant transport and distribution in hydraulic fractures,the calcu-lation of hydraulic fracture conductivity,and productivity and/or pressure analysis model of multi-stages fractured horizontal wells.Current fracture propagation simulation methods generate only limited propagation paths and cannot truly reflect the complexity of the propagation.The current proppant migration and distribution research is mainly focused on indoor experimental studies of proppant migration in a single fracture or branched fracture,and simulation studies on proppant migration and distribution in a small-scale single slab fracture.Whereas fractures formed after hydraulic fracturing in tight reservoirs are generally complicated.There is a lack of models for calculating complex fracture conductivity that take into consideration the effect of proppant placement and proppant distribution in fractures,fracture surface roughness and dissolution,diffusion,deposition,elastic embedding,and creep caused by stress.The productivity models of fractured horizontal wells are mostly conducted based on the original reservoir fluid saturation and pressure distribution.Most of the studies are focused only on one aspect of the fracturing process.Predications of well performance after fracturing based on these studies are often inconsistent with actual field data.The paper also discusses the future research di-rections of fracturing in tight reservoirs and the results may be used to promote the development of tight reservoirs.

Numerical Simulation of Hydraulic Transport of Sand-Water Mixtures in Pipelines

The development of empirical model for the hydraulic transport of sand-water mixtures is important for the design of economical solid-liquid transportation system in chemical and waste-disposal industries. The hydraulic transport characteristics of sand-water mixtures in circular pipelines are numerically investigated by using the FLUENT commercial software. Eulerian granular multiphase (EGM) model with the k-e turbulent model is used for the computation. Present method is validated by the computed values with the measured data. The effect of the concentration and pipe sizes on the relative solid effect is numerically investigated. It is found that the effect of the volumetric delivered concentration on both hydraulic gradient and solid effect increases as the Reynolds number decreases. When the Reynolds number is small, the increase in the volumetric delivered concentration has an effect of decreasing the hydraulic gradient whereas the solid effect increases with the volumetric delivered concentration stepping up. The effect of the pipe diameter is not the critical parameter for deciding the values of the relative solid effect in the sand-water mixture transportation.

Dynamic fluid transport property of hydraulic fractures and its evaluation using acoustic logging

The existing acoustic logging methods for evaluating the hydraulic fracturing effectiveness usually use the fracture density to evaluate the fracture volume, and the results often cannot accurately reflect the actual productivity. This paper studies the dynamic fluid flow through hydraulic fractures and its effect on borehole acoustic waves. Firstly, based on the fractal characteristics of fractures observed in hydraulic fracturing experiments, a permeability model of complex fracture network is established. Combining the dynamic fluid flow response of the model with the Biot-Rosenbaum theory that describes the acoustic wave propagation in permeable formations, the influence of hydraulic fractures on the velocity dispersion of borehole Stoneley-wave is then calculated and analyzed, whereby a novel hydraulic fracture fluid transport property evaluation method is proposed. The results show that the Stoneley-wave velocity dispersion characteristics caused by complex fractures can be equivalent to those of the plane fracture model, provided that the average permeability of the complex fracture model is equal to the permeability of the plane fracture. In addition, for fractures under high-permeability(fracture width 10~100 μm, permeability ~100 μm^(2)) and reduced permeability(1~10 μm, ~10 μm^(2), as in fracture closure) conditions, the Stoneley-wave velocity dispersion characteristics are significantly different. The field application shows that this fluid transport property evaluation method is practical to assess the permeability and the connectivity of hydraulic fractures.

Analysis on Shock Wave Speed of Water Hammer of Lifting Pipes for Deep-Sea Mining

Water hammer occurs whenever the fluid velocity in vertical lifting pipe systems for deep-sea mining suddenly changes. In this work, the shock wave was proven to play an important role in changing pressures and periods, and mathematical and numerical modeling technology was presented for simulated transient pressure in the abnormal pump operation. As volume concentrations were taken into account of shock wave speed, the experiment results about the pressure-time history, discharge-time history and period for the lifting pipe system showed that： as its concentrations rose up, the maximum transient pressure went down, so did its discharges; when its volume concentrations increased gradually, the period numbers of pressure decay were getting less and less, and the corresponding shock wave speed decreased. These results have highly coincided with simulation results. The conclusions are important to design lifting transporting system to prevent water hammer in order to avoid potentially devastating consequences, such as damage to components and equipment and risks to personnel.

Coupled hydro-thermo-mechanical modeling of hydraulic fracturing in quasi-brittle rocks using BPM-DEM

This paper presents an improved understanding of coupled hydro-thermo-mechanical(HTM) hydraulic fracturing of quasi-brittle rock using the bonded particle model(BPM) within the discrete element method(DEM). BPM has been recently extended by the authors to account for coupled convective econductive heat flow and transport, and to enable full hydro-thermal fluidesolid coupled modeling.The application of the work is on enhanced geothermal systems(EGSs), and hydraulic fracturing of hot dry rock(HDR) is studied in terms of the impact of temperature difference between rock and a flowing fracturing fluid. Micro-mechanical investigation of temperature and fracturing fluid effects on hydraulic fracturing damage in rocks is presented. It was found that fracture is shorter with pronounced secondary microcracking along the main fracture for the case when the convectiveeconductive thermal heat exchange is considered. First, the convection heat exchange during low-viscosity fluid infiltration in permeable rock around the wellbore causes significant rock cooling, where a finger-like fluid infiltration was observed. Second, fluid infiltration inhibits pressure rise during pumping and delays fracture initiation and propagation. Additionally, thermal damage occurs in the whole area around the wellbore due to rock cooling and cold fluid infiltration. The size of a damaged area around the wellbore increases with decreasing fluid dynamic viscosity. Fluid and rock compressibility ratio was found to have significant effect on the fracture propagation velocity.

Experimental study on the effects of big particles physical characteristics on the hydraulic transport inside a horizontal pipe

This paper presents an experimental study of the physical characteristic effects of large particles on hydraulic transport in a horizontal pipe.The particles are spherical and are large with respect to the diameter of the pipe(8%,10%,16% and 25%).Experiments were done to test the important parameters in solid transport(pressure,velocity,etc.).As a result,the relationship between the pressure gradient forces and the mixture velocity was substantially different from the pure liquid flow.However,in a single-phase flow a monotonous behavior of the pressure drop curve is observed,and the curve of the solid particle flow attains its minimum at the critical velocity.The regimes are characterized with differential pressure measurements and visualizations.

Experimental investigation and correlations for proppant distribution in narrow fractures of deep shale gas reservoirs

Hydraulic fracturing is a crucial stimulation for the development of deep shale gas reservoirs.A key challenge to the effectiveness of hydraulic fracturing is to place small proppants in complex narrow fractures reasonably.The experiments with varied particle and fluid parameters are carried out in a narrow planar channel to understand particle transport and distribution.The four dimensionless parameters,including the Reynold number,Shields number,density ratio,and particle volume fraction,are introduced to describe the particle transport in narrow fractures.The results indicate that the narrow channel probably induces fluid fingers and small particle aggregation in a highly viscous fluid,leading to particle settlement near the entrance.The low viscous fluid is beneficial to disperse particles further into the fracture,especially in the high-speed fluid velocity.The linear and natural logarithmic laws have relationships with dimensionless parameters accurately.The multiple linear regression method developed two correlation models with four dimensionless parameters to predict the bed equilibrium height and covered area of small particles in narrow fractures.The study provides fundamental insight into understanding small size proppant distribution in deep reservoirs.

Numerical Modelling of Proppant Transport in Hydraulic Fractures

The distribution of proppant injected in hydraulic fractures significantly affects the fracture conductivity and well performance.The proppant transport in thin fracturing fluid used during hydraulic fracturing in the unconventional reservoirs is considerably different from fracturing fluids in the conventional reservoir due to the very low viscosity and quick deposition of the proppants.This paper presents the development of a three-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics(CFD)modelling technique for the prediction of proppant-fluid multiphase flow in hydraulic fractures.The proposed model also simulates the fluid leak-off behaviour from the fracture wall.The Euler-Granular and CFD-Discrete Element Method(CFD-DEM)multiphase modelling approach has been applied,and the equations defining the fluid-proppant and inter-proppant interaction have been solved using the finite volume technique.The proppant transport in hydraulic fractures has been studied comprehensively,and the computational modelling results of proppant distribution and other flow properties are in good agreement with the published experimental study.The parametric study is performed to investigate the effect of variation in proppant size,fluid viscosity and fracture width on the proppant transport.Smaller proppants can be injected early,followed by larger proppants to maintain high propping efficiency.This study has enhanced the understanding of the complex flow phenomenon between proppant and fracturing fluid and can play a vital role in hydraulic fracturing design.

Numerical Investigation on Inclined Hydraulic Transport of Large Particles for Deepsea Mining

Hydraulic transport in pipelines is the most promising conveying method for large ore particles in deepsea mining.The dynamic performances of particles during transportation in vertical,inclined and horizontal pipelines are significant for the design of hydraulic transport systems.In the present study,we focus on the statistical characteristics and flow regimes of the mixture composed of ore particles and seawater in the pipelines.Numerical simulations are conducted by using Computational Fluid Dynamics(CFD)and Discrete Element Method(DEM).The influences of inclination angle and particle diameter are evaluated through two sets of numerical tests.The regulation of the inclined transport is totally different from that of the vertical transport,whereas the dynamics of the mixtures in inclined and horizontal pipes are similar.A number of particles accumulate on the pipe wall even with a small inclination angle.Large hydraulic gradient and local concentration would occur when the inclination angle of the pipe is in the range of30°-60°.With the decrease of particle diameter,the particle flow becomes uniform,reflected by the almost uniform particle distribution in the vertical pipe and the clear interface between the suspended load and the bed-load in the inclined pipe.However,small particles will introduce larger local concentrations and hydraulic gradients in the inclined pipe,which is not conducive to particle transport.

Investigation on Pressure Drop of Fluid-Solid Mixture Flow through Pipes Using CFD and SK Model

The carrier fluid (air or water) is used to transport solid material from the source place to its destination point through pipeline. Using air as carrier fluid to transport solid material through pipeline is called Pneumo transport, whereas transporting material with water or any other liquid through pipeline is called as hydraulic transport. A large number of installations are now available globally to transport solid materials to short, medium, and long distances using water/air as carrier fluid. However, the design of such system of pipeline is still an empirical art. In the present investigation, one generalized mathematical model developed by Shrivastava and Kar (SK Model) and CFD models were used and compared with experimental results for pneumatic and hydraulic transport of granular solids. The motivation of present work is to find the accuracy of SK model based on analytical, empirical and semi-empirical for the prediction of pressure drop and comparing the result with CFD based on mathematical equation for the mixture flow in the horizontal and vertical pipe lines. The comparison of pressure drop results obtained by using SK model and CFD model were validated with the experimental results for pneumatic and hydraulic transport of solids through. From the comparison results, it was observed that the results of pressure drop predicted by SK model are more accurate than the CFD models for all the cases considered.

Feasibility Study on Lifting of Seabed Materials Using a Bubble-Jet-Type Air-Lift Pump

The present study is concerned with the lifting of seabed materials by a BJT （bubble-jet-type） air-lift pump patented by Sadatomi. The targets are methane-hydrate rich muds on the bed about 200 m in depth around Japan islands and rare-earth rich muds on the bed deeper than 4,000 m around Minami-Torishima islands in the Pacific Ocean. Feasibility studies were conducted using 50 mm I. D. （inner diameter） and 5.0 m long vertical pipe as the pump upriser, VC （vinyl chloride） particles and natural sands mixture in the methane-hydrate case, and ceramics particles with 3,761 kg/m^3 in density in the rare-earth case as the deposits. From the methane-hydrate simulation experiments, an efficient operation condition with high VC particles to sands lifting ratio has been clarified. In the rare-earth case, the air supplies from two different midways in the upriser pipe have been tested together with the bottom supply because the air supply from the upriser bottom is very hard in deep sea. The effects of the air supply position on the pump performance have been clarified by the experiments and the simulations with a revised model applicable to the midway air supply type.

Sheet material lifting mechanism of the manipulator

At present, machine fixed up and down repeatedly work is done by human. Although it is low cost and easy to change plate, there are many shortcomings of the work injury and the low work efficiency. Foreign automatic loading and unloading device has been developed, but the principle is more complex, the cost is higher, the energy consumption is larger, so the automatic loading and unloading robot came into being. Aiming at the transportation of mechanical raw material, an automatic device is designed to transport the scheduled raw materials to the specified position according to the processing requirements. The device has the characteristics of the simple operation, the rapid response and the large range of activities, and has obvious economic and environmental benefits. There is certain popularization value.

Study of hydraulic transport characteristics and erosion wear of twisted four-lobed pipe based on CFD-DEM

Pipeline hydraulic transportation is extensively utilized across diverse sectors,with enhancing the performance of pipeline hydrodynamic transport and minimizing erosion wear on the pipeline walls being essential for ensuring the stability of pipeline operations.This paper introduces a methodology for the hydraulic transport of a twisted four-lobed pipe,employing a numerical and erosion model developed through the CFD-DEM(computational fluid dynamics and discrete element method)coupling approach.An experimental circulating flow platform is constructed for validation purposes.The performance of the pipe is assessed by analyzing key indices including fluid velocity,pressure drop,particle trajectory,and erosion wear.The results indicate that twisted four-lobed pipe enhances fluid flow rates,facilitating particle discharge and mitigating accumulation,with reduced wear compared to the twin twist triangle spiral pipe.The analysis of structural parameters’impact on hydraulic conveyance is also presented.These findings offer theoretical insights for optimizing pipeline performance in hydraulic conveyance while minimizing wear.

Physical Hydrography and Algal Bloom Transport in Hong Kong Waters

In sub-tropical coastal waters around Hong Kong, algal blooms and red tides are usually first sighted in the Mirs Bay, in the eastern waters of Hong Kong. A calibrated three-dimensional hydrodynamic model for the Pearl River Estuary （Delft3D） has been applied to the study of the physical hydrography of Hong Kong waters and its relationship with algal bloom transport patterns in the dry and wet seasons. The general 3D hydrodynamic circulation and salinity structure in the partially-mixed estuary are presented. Extensive numerical surface drogue tracking experiments are performed for algal blooms that are initiated in the Mirs Bay under different seasonal, wind and tidal conditions. The probability of bloom impact on the Victoria Harbour and nearby urban coastal waters is estimated. The computations show that： i） In the wet season （May - August）, algal blooms initiated in the Mirs Bay will move in a clockwise direction out of the bay, and be transported away from Hong Kong due to SW monsoon winds which drive the SW to NE coastal current; ii） In the dry season （November- April）, algal blooms initiated in the northeast Mirs Bay will move in an anti-clockwise direction and be carried away into southern waters due to the NE to SW coastal current driven by the NE monsoon winds; the bloom typically flows past the east edge of the Victoria Harbeur and nearby waters. Finally, the role of hydrodynamic transport in an important episodic event -- the spring 1998 massive red tide -- is quantitatively examined. It is shown that the strong NE to E wind during late March to early April, coupled with the diurnal tide at the beginning of April, significantly increased the probability of bloom transport into the Port Shelter and East Lamma Channel, resulting in the massive fish kill. The results provide a basis for risk assessment of harmful algal bloom （HAB） impact on urban coastal waters around the Victoria Habour.