Technology Projects > Deep Sea Technologies > Activities
Project Overview - IMS Development
ISA Commitments for 2018-19
•Sea bed soil studies at TMS/CIOB using In-situ Soil tester.
•Sea bed locomotion trials of experimental under-carriage at 3000 water depth on soft sea bed soil
Action Taken
•Sea Trials at CIOB, scheduled Mar-Apr 2019 – 35 days
•Deep Sea Winch-Umbilical Commissioning
•In-situ Soil Tester assembly and functional trials
•Exp. Under-Carriage assembly and functional trials
•Intimation to ISA of the trials planned – from MoES in Nov 2018
In addition,
For 2019-20 nodule collection & local pumping trials at CIOB – EIA Report preparation initiated for submission to ISA by Jun 2019
Locomotion trials at CIOB
Experimental Under-Carriage: Varaha - 1
•To examine the static and dynamic sinkage of the undercarriage system, Riser load measurements, traction force estimation and re-moulding effects of soil after disturbance.
•Twisting of the umbilical during deployment and retrieval due to cable stretch, underwater current and due to deployment generated vorticity
•The proposed experimental undercarriage system (EUC-1) has following specification:
•Weight of the system in Air : 15 Tonnes
•Weight of the system in water : 2.5 Tonnes
•Contact area : 4.2 m2
•Contact bearing pressure : 6 kPa
•Operating speed : 0.15 to 0.5 m/s
In-situ Soil Tester
An improved in-situ tester has been developed with independent shear vane and penetration cone arrangement for evaluation and measuring the seabed soil strength properties.
The soil tester has also been equipped to collect sediment core samples for comparison in non-pressurized conditions and also equipped with camera to assess nodule distribution and abundance.
The Unit will be used during the planned CIOB trials in Apr 2019
