China News Service, Changsha, April 8th (Fu Yu, Tang Yahui, Li Lingyun) Hunan University of Science and Technology revealed on the 8th that China’s first "Manatee II" submarine large-hole deep pressure core drilling system developed by the school was in Beijing. At about 23 o'clock on April 7th, 231 meters were successfully drilled in the South China Sea at a depth of more than 2,000 meters, refreshing the drilling depth of the world's deep sea submarine rigs.
The success of this deep-sea test fills the gap in China's deep-sea subsea drilling rig equipment with a depth of more than 100 meters and has the function of maintaining pressure and coring, marking that China has reached the world's leading level in this technical field.
"Manatee II" is undergoing sea trial operation.
Photo courtesy of Hunan University of Science and Technology
It is reported that the “Manatee II” submarine large-hole deep pressure-maintaining core drilling rig system is the subject of China’s key research and development plan “key deep-sea technology and equipment”. The goal is to develop a working depth of not less than 2000 meters and a drilling depth of not less than 200 meters. The compression success rate is not less than 60%, which can effectively meet the submarine large-hole deep pressure-maintaining core drilling rig system for China's submarine natural gas hydrate (combustible ice) resource exploration.
The "Manatee II" drilling rig has a height of 7.6 meters, a waist circumference of 10 meters, a weight of 12 tons, and an underwater weight of 10 tons. It is currently the heaviest underwater geological exploration scientific research equipment in China.
It looks like a giant, and it is as flexible as a loach when it reaches the bottom of the sea.
Starting from the Guangzhou port, the "Manatee II" carrying the Marine Geology II scientific research ship arrived at the target work area on April 3, Beijing time, and carried out a joint test of deep-sea operations.
The sea trial operation was carried out at about 6 am on the 7th. At 8:30, the "Manatee II" successfully sat on the bottom of the seabed at a depth of 2060 meters. After completing the posture leveling on the seabed, the target layer protection was carried out for about 15 hours. Press-core drilling operations.
Professor Wan Buyan, the chief scientist of "Manatee II", introduced that compared with the current world’s deep seabed drilling rig’s maximum drilling depth of more than 100 meters, the pressure-maintaining core drilling depth of the "Manatee II" target seafloor layer reached 231 meters. It is the only deep-sea subsea drilling rig in the world with a subsea drilling depth of more than 200 meters.
It adopts the new hydrate pressure-maintaining and coring principle based on submarine drilling rig rope coring technology, pressure-maintaining coring technology and technology, lightweight design technology, and an intelligent drilling expert system for submarine complex formations to make drilling efficiency and core quality , The success rate of pressure holding is significantly improved, the weight of the drilling rig is greatly reduced compared with similar foreign drilling rigs, and the difficulty of underwater retracting and unloading operations is greatly reduced.
The success of this deep-sea experiment means that China has reached the world's leading level in this technology field.
Wan Buyan and his scientific research team began to develop deep-sea submarine drilling rigs in 2000. In 2003, they successfully developed China’s first deep-sea shallow core sampling rig, and successfully drilled 0.7 meters below the seabed to obtain the first core sample. It started the process of China's independent research and development of deep-sea subsea drilling rigs.
In the following ten years, Wan Buyan led his team to take root in this technical field. In 2010, he successfully developed a deep-sea medium- and deep-hole core sampling drill with a seabed drilling depth of 20 meters; in 2015, he successfully developed the "Manatee" seabed multi-purpose. The drilling rig rewrites the drilling depth record of China's deep-sea subsea drilling rigs.
All key technologies are independently researched and developed. At present, the team has obtained 125 national patents and 4 international invention patents.
It is understood that Wan Buyan and his team have set their sights on the Mariana Trench at a water depth of 11,000 meters, and strive to achieve geological drilling and sampling at a water depth of 11,000 meters in the next few years, in order to reveal the expansion and evolution of the trench and the unique ecosystem and life. The law of process evolution provides a weapon.
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