Development of a plough pulling force model for submarine narrow shaped ploughs

Development of a plough pulling force model for submarine narrow shaped ploughs

Van Gurp, A.P.

Van Rhee, C. (mentor)
Miedema, S.A. (mentor)
Ngan-Tillard, D.J.M. (mentor)
Van Baalen, L. (mentor)
Biesheuvel, M. (mentor)

Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering

Offshore & Dredging Engineering

Dredging Engineering

2014-10-21

Offshore cable burial is often performed with submarine narrow shaped ploughs. Available submarine narrow shaped ploughs have different geometries and the influence of several variables in the design of these ploughs was analysed during this thesis. This was done to develop a plough pulling force model for generic narrow shaped plough geometries in clay soil conditions. Additionally, the specific geometric shape of the Sea Stallion 4 plough was analysed as this plough is used by VolkerWessels Boskalis Marine Solutions and no satisfactory model for predicting the required pulling forces in clay was available. The following variables in the geometries of the narrow shaped ploughs were analysed: adhesion area, ploughing angle, tip shape and additional cutting teeth. In addition to these geometric variables the influences by ploughing depth and ploughing velocity were also analysed. First, a literature study was performed in order to identify analytical models already available for submarine narrow shaped ploughs and models from other branches that probably could be used to predict the required ploughing forces for narrow shaped ploughs. The following theories and models were reviewed: submarine plough models, ultimate bearing capacity models, narrow tine models and strain-rate dependency models. Concurrently with the literature study, orientating experiments were performed in order to gain insight in the force magnitudes occurring in small scale experiments and in order to gain insight in the influence by size, length and tip of the analysed geometries. Knowledge gained by the literature study and orientating experiments was used to develop a more advanced experimental setup, in which all selected variables were analysed. Results from the experiments were compared to predictions made by the analytical models. From this comparison, it was concluded that an adapted ultimate bearing capacity theory is most appropriate to predict the required ploughing forces. As the more advanced experimental setup, the results gained with this setup and the conclusions of the research are confidential, the repository version of the report does not contain these parts.

ploughing

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:7d157829-3e61-4b79-aced-4230ab5e302c

2017-10-21

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2014 Van Gurp, A.P.