The Development of the European UItrasonic Planetary Core Drill (UPCD)

Timoney, Ryan; Harkness, Patrick; Worrall, Kevin; Li, Xuan; Bolhovitins, Aleksandrs; Cheney, Andy; Lucas, Margaret

doi:10.2514/6.2015-4553

Cited by 11 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…The full sequence of movements is covered and describes the drilling, assembling, disassembling and caching stages. A full procedure can be found in Timoney et al (2015).…”

Section: Drillstringmentioning

confidence: 99%

UPCD: Field Trial Results and Further Work

Worrall

Timoney²,

et al. 2018

Earth and Space 2018

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The Ultrasonic Planetary Core Drill (UPCD) project sought to develop and conduct a field trial, in an analogous Martian environment, of a space-compatible regolithsampling tool. The project implemented a number of key technologies to achieve this aim; a drilling control loop based on ultrasonic power feedback, a bayonet interface system to allow a drillstring to be built up in-situ then disassembled after use, a coring design which captured the cores drilled out, and a mechanism for caching the core samples in sealable containers. The system was demonstrated in the laboratory with results indicating low power, low weight on bit, achievement of the targeted depth, and the retrieval of still-frozen core samples. The routines to allow the system to become fully autonomous were also demonstrated. The drill was deployed to Coal Nunatak on Alexander Island, Antarctica, for analogue trials. The drill was demonstrated to work, as was the caching and drill assembly/disassembly system, but the target depth was not achieved. A review of drill depth is provided along with a laboratory solution to the problems encountered in the field. Further work using the UPCD is also discussed.

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“…The full sequence of movements is covered and describes the drilling, assembling, disassembling and caching stages. A full procedure can be found in Timoney et al (2015).…”

Section: Drillstringmentioning

confidence: 99%

UPCD: Field Trial Results and Further Work

Worrall

Timoney²,

et al. 2018

Earth and Space 2018

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“…1 (b which are balanced axially by a front wave spring around the lance. The free-mass sits on a shaft, where its oscillations transfer energy to the lance and hence on to the drill-bit, while the drill-bit itself is keyed into a spline bearing housed in a cog gear driven by a Maxon DC motor [7]. Rotation of the drill-bit avoids imprintation of the tungsten carbide cutting teeth and allows debris to be augered out of the hole.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Full and Half-Wavelength Ultrasonic Percussive Drills

Lucas

Harkness

2018

IEEE Trans. Ultrason., Ferroelect., Freq. Contr.

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Ultrasonic percussive drills are a leading technology for small rock drilling applications where power and weight-on-bit are at a premium. The concept uses ultrasonic vibrations to excite an oscillatory motion in a free-mass, which then delivers impulsive blows to a drilling-bit. This is a relatively complex dynamic problem involving the transducer, the free-mass, the drilling-bit and, to a certain extent, the rock surface itself. This paper examines the performance of a full-wavelength transducer compared to a half-wavelength system, which may be more attractive due to mass and dimensional drivers. To compare the two approaches, 3-D finite-element models of the ultrasonic percussive stacks using full and half-wavelength ultrasonic transducers are created to assess delivered impulse at similar power settings. In addition, impact-induced stress levels are evaluated to optimize the design of drill tools at a range of internal spring rates before, finally, experimental drilling is conducted. The results suggest that full-wavelength systems will yield much more effective impulse but, interestingly, their actual drilling performance was only marginally better than half-wavelength equivalents.

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“…The spline shaft, and hence the lance, is rotated by a spline bush within a cog gear seated on an angular contact bearing and rotated by a pinion attached to a Maxon DC motor. This permits rotation of the lance for the drill string assembly [7] and ensures that the teeth of the drill-bit impact different regions of the rock as drilling progresses. This ensures that the contact area remains small, the interface pressures remain correspondingly high, and the rate of progress is sufficiently rapid for planetary drilling [8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The front spring, meanwhile, also applies a static internal pre-load on the dynamic stack that returns the drill string to the free-mass [9] during zero weight-on-bit testing. Operationally, the front spring is also involved in separating the bayonet-style connections envisaged for drill string itself [7]. It has been found in both simulation and experiment that specific combinations of compression spring rates, operating at different internal pre-loads and weights-on-bit, can cause the dynamic force generated in the springs to reach zero, so that there is a temporary separation with the result that the casing and the springs rattle.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Parametric Study for the Design of an Optimized Ultrasonic Percussive Planetary Drill Tool

Harkness

Worrall

et al. 2017

IEEE Trans. Ultrason., Ferroelect., Freq. Contr.

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Abstract-Traditional rotary drilling for planetary rock sampling, in-situ analysis and sample return, is challenging because the axial force and holding torque requirements are not necessarily compatible with lightweight spacecraft architectures in low-gravity environments. This article seeks to optimize an ultrasonic-percussive drill tool to achieve rock penetration with lower reacted force requirements, with a strategic view towards building an Ultrasonic Planetary Core Drill (UPCD) device. The UPCD is a descendant of the Ultrasonic/Sonic Driller/Corer (USDC) technique. In these concepts, a transducer and horn (typically resonant at around 20kHz) is used to excite a toroidal free-mass which oscillates chaotically between the horn tip and drill base at lower frequencies (generally between 10Hz to 1kHz). This creates a series of stress pulses which are transferred through the drill-bit to the rock surface and, while the stress at the drill-bit tip/rock interface exceeds the compressive strength of the rock, cause fractures that result in fragmentation of the rock. This facilitates augering and downward progress. In order to ensure that the drill-bit tip delivers the greatest effective impulse (the time-integral of the drill-bit tip/rock pressure curve exceeding the strength of the rock), parameters such as the spring rates and the mass of the free-mass, drill-bit and transducer have been varied and compared in both computer simulation and in practical experiment. The most interesting findings, and those of particular relevance to deep drilling, indicate that increasing the mass of the drill-bit has a limited (or even positive) influence on the rate of effective impulse delivered.

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The Development of the European UItrasonic Planetary Core Drill (UPCD)

Cited by 11 publications

References 3 publications

UPCD: Field Trial Results and Further Work

UPCD: Field Trial Results and Further Work

Full and Half-Wavelength Ultrasonic Percussive Drills

A Parametric Study for the Design of an Optimized Ultrasonic Percussive Planetary Drill Tool

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