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.

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.