Vertical hydraulic transport for deep sea mining: A study into flow assurance

Title

Vertical hydraulic transport for deep sea mining: A study into flow assurance

 Author

Van Wijk, J.M.

Contributor

Van Rhee, C. (promotor)
Talmon, A.M. (promotor)

Faculty

Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering

 Department

Offshore and Dredging Engineering

 Date

2016-02-08

 Abstract

Deep sea mining activities require excavation of material at the sea floor, transport of the material from the sea floor to the sea surface and processing of the material afterwards. One way to transport the material from the sea floor to sea surface is by means of a riser with centrifugal pump booster stations. In this research it is investigated whether the riser can get blocked by the solids, because blockage would terminate the entire mining operation. By means of dedicated laboratory experiments and the construction of a one dimensional flow model, the risk of riser blockage has been investigated. The experiments provide support for the model equations and they provide valuable insights in blockage mechanisms. The one dimensional model can be used to simulate the transport process with different, user defined scenario's.

 Subject

vertical hydraulic transport
deep sea mining
flow assurance

 To reference this document use:

https://doi.org/10.4233/uuid:2e493b95-486a-4c2f-a8ae-749990b06a5e

 Embargo date

2016-02-08

 ISBN

978-90-9029-540-4

 Part of collection

Institutional Repository

 Document type

doctoral thesis

 Rights

(c) 2016 Van Wijk, J.M.
Files
PDF Vertical_Hydraulic_Transp ... n_Wijk.pdf 16.65 MB
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