Transportation of granular materials with ultrasonic augers

Abstract

Drilling extra-terrestrial planets can be difficult, which is restrained by the payloads, power, and requirements of low axial force of rover posed by low environmental gravity, and drill bits can be trapped at a large depth, due to the accumulated spoils resulted from the low efficiency removal rate. This can cause motor to stall and draw excessive power. This work explores the opportunity of superposition of ultrasonic vibration on a vertical rotating auger in a variety of granular media. Ultrasonic vibration is known to facilitate direct penetration of granular materials, and it is anticipated that any related reduction in the contact friction force might improve augering performance.Experimental results suggest that, compared to the nonultrasonic scenario, ultrasonically assisted augering process has significantly promoted the flow of granular media and has moderately reduced the torque required to operate the device. Furthermore, it was discovered that particle size and auger speed also affect the performance of the auger system in different ways as the ultrasonic amplitude is adjusted.