Design and tests of a quick disassembly and assembly system for a deep-sea mineral mixed transportation pipeline

ABSTRACT

In deep-sea mixed transmission mining systems, the mixed transmission hard pipe plays an important role in mineral transport. To speed up the process of connecting the hard pipe, a quick disassembly and assembly system was designed. By model analysis, the key focus of the rapid disassembly and assembly system was the clamp connector. On the basis of vibration theory and finite-element simulations, the connector underwent static and vibration analysis, and the fatigue life was predicted. Finally, laboratory and sea test tests were conducted on the rapid disassembly and assembly system. The quick disassembly and assembly system can realise quick disassembly and assembly under the target working conditions and maintained smooth operation during two 24-h cycle tests.

KEYWORDS:

• Deep-sea mining
• riser connection
• rapid disassembly
• mechanical analysis
• vibration analysis
• offshore test

Acknowledgements

We thank Michael Scott Long, PhD, from Liwen Bianji (Edanz) (www.liwenbianji.cn) for editing the English text of a draft of this manuscript. Author Contributions: Conceptualisation, P.J. and X.C.; methodology, P.J.,Y.W and X.C.; validation, P.J. and X.C.; formal analysis, P.J.; investigation, P.J.,J.Z. and G.R.; resources, Y.W and X.C.; data curation, S.Y.; writing – original draft preparation, S.Y.; writing – review and editing, S.Y. and X.W.; visualisation, S.Y.; supervision, J.Z and G.R.; project administration, P.J.; funding acquisition, P.J. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability

The data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Key Technology Research and Development Program of Shandong under [grant number 2021JMR0302]; Research on Key Technologies of All-electric Subsea Production Control System under [grant number CCL2022RCPS0622RQN]; and –national high technology research project of ship (Research on Domestic Technology of General Materials and Key Parts for Underwater Production System).