Print Email Facebook Twitter Mining of Deep-Seabed Nodules Using a Coandă-Effect-Based Collector Title Mining of Deep-Seabed Nodules Using a Coandă-Effect-Based Collector Author Alhaddad, S.M.S. (TU Delft Offshore and Dredging Engineering) Mehta, D. (TU Delft Sanitary Engineering) Helmons, R.L.J. (TU Delft Offshore and Dredging Engineering; Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)) Date 2023 Abstract We present an effective design of a hydraulic, polymetallic nodule collector, which fundamentally depends on the Coandă effect in harvesting nodules. The design was first developed based on 2D numerical simulations conducted using a computational fluid dynamics tool, ANSYS FLUENT. Following that, the design was tested in full-scale experiments, which provided insights into the collection efficiency of the collector and confirmed its functionality and effectiveness. The latter means, in the context of deep sea mining, high effective pick-up of nodules, with minimum sediment disturbance. Our observations indicate that our design hardly disturbs the tested sediment bed. The experimental results show that a higher jet velocity leads to a higher pick-up efficiency. Two forward velocities were tested and the higher forward velocity led to a lower pick-up efficiency. It is revealed that the available time for the nodules to respond to the pressure gradient under the collector is of great importance; if the available time is not sufficient, the nodules will not be picked-up even if the pressure gradient is adequate. The clearance under the rear cowl of the collection duct is found to play a major influential role in the collection process; a smaller bottom clearance results in a higher pick-up efficiency. Subject Deep sea miningPolymetallic NodulesHydraulic collectorCoandă effectNodule pick-up device To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:a352f021-7661-4ceb-b713-ae824761d57c DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rineng.2022.100852 Source Results in Engineering, 17 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2023 S.M.S. Alhaddad, D. Mehta, R.L.J. Helmons Files PDF 1_s2.0_S2590123022005229_main.pdf 4.09 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:a352f021-7661-4ceb-b713-ae824761d57c/datastream/OBJ/view