Research on cobalt-rich crust cutting modes by deep-sea mining vehicle and cutting performance evaluation

Conical picks are the core component of deep-sea mining vehicle in cobalt-rich crust cutting, and its cutting modes directly affects the deep-sea mining vehicle performance. In order to study the cutting modes and the influence of cutting modes on their comprehensive properties, the cobalt-rich crust cutting model is established by discrete element method, and the cobalt-rich crust crack evolution process, cutting modes and the forming law of broken block are studied in deep-sea environment. On this basis, a comprehensive evaluation model for the cutting performance based on each performance index game is established, the mapping relationships between the number of cracks, the length of lateral cracks, the specific energy and the comprehensive performances are studied. The results show that the cutting mode and comprehensive performance are different among different cutting parameters. According to the crack propagation, the cutting modes can be divided into mode I, mode II and mode III. The comprehensive performance of mode III is the best, mode II is the second and mode I is relatively worst under the same working conditions.