Development of an inflight centrifuge screw pile installation and loading system
Development of an inflight centrifuge screw pile installation and loading system
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发表时间:
2016
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通讯作者:
T. Al-Baghdadi;Michael Brown;J. Knappett
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作者:
T. Al-Baghdadi;Michael Brown;J. Knappett
To simulate the prototype installation behaviour of screw piles at realistic confining stress levels, a new installation and loading rig, consisting of two independently-controlled servo-motor drive systems was developed to allow screw pile models to be installed and axially load-tested inflight in one operation at 50 g. This system was developed around the Scalable Actuator Control System architecture (SACS) recently installed on the Dundee centrifuge, based around a National Instruments compactRIO controller with modularly scale-able servo drive interfaces. 1:50 scale model screw piles were manufactured from mild steel with 10 mm diameter cores with 25 mm diameter flanges welded on, representing a new generation of larger screw pile proposed for offshore marine renewable applications. These were installed up to 200 mm depth in dry dense sand to demonstrate the performance and capabilities of the new actuator. This paper details the design philosophy and operation of the servo motor actuation system for inflight screw pile installation. force sensor and dynamic torque meter, which were placed on top of an SV2 servo-controlled hydraulic jack (i.e. a hybrid electro-hydraulic system) with a capacity up to 3.2 kN and maximum speed 130 mm/s over 300 mm stroke. This device was capable of measuring torque up to 50 N.m with rotation speed between 0 5.2 rpm (Thorel et al., 2008). Recently, Patra et al. (2014) developed a single axis servo actuator at the University of Dundee (UoD) based around a scalable architecture to allow further fully independent servo-controlled ‘axes’ to be added at a future date. In this work, the single axis drive was developed for anchor pull-out and penetrometer testing, having a capacity up to 50 kN and a maximum speed 3.1 mm/s over 300 mm stroke. This paper will detail how a second servoelectric drive axis was added, along with a framework and mountings to turn the two drive motors into a screw pile installer and vertical load tester, capable of displacement or force/torque control. 2 SERVO ACTUATOR DESIGN The servo actuator described in this paper was designed to install and test large (high torque) 1:50 scale model screw piles inflight at 50-g. The installation of the screw pile inflight was considered the most difficult challenge as it involved controlled rotation of the multi-plate screw pile simultaneously with controlled vertical downward movement. Based upon experience from current onshore (displacement-controlled) field installation of similar piles, the rotational and vertical speeds need precise control based on the screw pile and soil properties to create minimum disturbance to the soil i.e. to avoid overor under-flighting and also to control/minimize the vertical or “crowding load”. Therefore, it was decided to use two independent servomotors manufactured by Kollmorgen to supply the rotational and vertical movement (AKM53H and AKM54H) due to their ability to provide precise control of velocity, angular position and acceleration (the servo actuator specifications are provided in Table 1). This was achieved by using a ball screw system with one of the servomotors (‘master’) to translate the rotary motion into a linear motion for vertical displacement as shown in Figure 1. The rotational degree of freedom was provided using the second servo motor (‘slave’) mounted on the top loading plate that rotated the multi-plate screw pile via a gearbox and a custom-built in-line combined torque/axial load cell (mounted above the screw pile model, and not shown for clarity in Figure 1). Gears were used on both axes to increase the torque supplied by the servo motors. The main servo motor (master, vertical control) utilised a gear ratio of 1:6.67, while the second motor (slave, rotational control) utilised a gear ratio of 1:4 to increase the installation torque. Figure 1. Schematic diagram of the screw pile centrifuge test setup with a new servo actuator placed on the container (note the screw pile consists of single plates rather than a continuous helical as shown). Table 1. The Servo actuator performance specifications. _____________________________________________ Specification Vertical Rotation _____________________________________________ Stroke 300 mm __ Max. Speed 1.67 mm/s 100 rpm* Min. Speed 0.016 mm/s 1 rpm* Capacity ± 10 kN 30 N.m _____________________________________________ *rpm: revolutions per minute. 3 INSTRUMENTATION AND CONTROL