Ultrasonic Drilling and Coring for Planetary Astrobiological Applications

用于行星天体生物学应用的超声波钻孔和取芯

• 批准号: ST/F003587/1
• 负责人: Margaret Lucas
• 金额: $ 39.29万
• 依托单位: University of Glasgow
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2008 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ST%2FF003587%2F1
• 关键词: Ultrasonic; Drilling; Coring; Planetary; Astrobiological

Planetary exploration is the key to one of the most exciting scientific endeavours of the 21st century; the search for life outside planet Earth. A primary role for surface rovers in planetary exploration is exobiological prospecting. Autonomous rovers are the key to finding evidence of former or extant prebiotic or biotic species. For this purpose, reliable and effective instruments that can sample and conduct in-situ astrobiology analysis need to be developed. Currently, drilling requires large axial forces and holding toques and high power. This limits conventional driller/corer applications to very stable and large platforms with solid anchoring. Conventional drillers consume a lot of energy, are subject to drill bit jamming, breaking and dulling, are difficult to use for non-vertical operations and the drilling process is hampered by the accumulation of drilling debris. The aim of this study is therefore to model, design, build and test an ultrasonic driller/corer for planetary astrobiological applications The fundamental principle of ultrasonic drilling is to oscillate a cutting tool in the low ultrasonic frequency range, to produce a small axial motion at a relatively high velocity. The impact of the tool against the surface of the rock produces micro-fractures in the crystal and mineral structure causing the surface to be eroded and broken, thus allowing drilling or cutting to be achieved using a modest preload. The proposed research will develop a novel approach to ultrasonic drilling/coring by adapting flextensional ultrasonic transducers as the driving end of the device, allowing the drill to be miniaturised without loss of vibration amplitude, and to remove the need for rotational drilling. The design will rely on the development of validated finite element models of ultrasonic drilling in rock, in order both to compare different drill designs and to predict the vibration and temperature responses of the drill and workpiece. Bringing essential expertise and support to this project, the industrial partner, EADS Astrium, has world-renowned expertise in the highly specialised field of space science, with several space industry firsts to its credit. EADS Astrium owns some of the best-appointed and most advanced design, manufacture and test facilities in the space industry. The challenges in designing a small, low power, low preload ultrasonic driller/corer to cut through rock, equally apply to the design of novel ultrasonic devices for welding processes and food cutting applications. Currently, ultrasonic welders are large assemblies but, with the move towards miniaturisation of electronic and medical devices, the capability of joining dissimilar materials such as metals, ceramics and glass, has become of paramount importance. Ultrasonic cutting of food products has proved to be an effective technology, achieving substantial reductions in product waste and improved cut quality at increased cutting speed. However, ultrasonic cutters tend to be large tools capable of cutting only a limited range of food products. For both applications, successful design of the ultrasonic driller/corer will provide opportunities for the design of a new generation of low power ultrasonic welding devices and cutters, adaptable to a much wider variety of materials. The UK division of Branson Ultrasonics, the second industrial partner, is the market leader in ultrasonic welding and, as a result of close relationships with the food industry, has recently developed several new innovations for ultrasonic cutting of food products. Branson are therefore in a unique position in the UK to collaborate in this research project.

行星探索是21世纪最令人兴奋的科学努力之一的关键;寻找地球以外的生命。地表漫游者在行星探测中的一个主要作用是进行外星生物勘探。自主漫游车是寻找以前或现存的前生物或生物物种证据的关键。为此，需要开发能够取样和进行现场天体生物学分析的可靠和有效的仪器。目前，钻孔需要大的轴向力和保持扭矩以及高功率。这限制了传统钻机/取芯器应用于具有坚固锚固的非常稳定的大型平台。传统的钻机消耗大量能量，容易发生钻头堵塞、断裂和变钝，难以用于非垂直操作，并且钻井过程受到钻井碎片积聚的阻碍。因此，本研究的目的是建模，设计，建造和测试超声波钻孔器/取芯器的行星天体生物学应用超声波钻孔的基本原理是振荡的切削刀具在低超声频率范围内，以产生一个小的轴向运动在一个相对较高的速度。工具对岩石表面的冲击在晶体和矿物结构中产生微裂缝，导致表面被侵蚀和破碎，从而允许使用适度的预加载来实现钻孔或切割。拟议的研究将开发一种新的方法，超声波钻孔/取芯，通过调整弯张超声波换能器作为设备的驱动端，允许钻头在不损失振动幅度的情况下进行振动，并消除对旋转钻孔的需要。该设计将依赖于在岩石中进行超声波钻孔的经验证的有限元模型的开发，以便比较不同的钻头设计并预测钻头和工件的振动和温度响应。工业合作伙伴埃兹Astrium在高度专业化的空间科学领域拥有世界知名的专业知识，为该项目提供了必要的专业知识和支持，并创造了多项空间行业第一。埃兹Astrium拥有航天工业中一些设备最齐全、最先进的设计、制造和测试设施。设计小型、低功率、低预载超声波钻孔器/取芯器以切割岩石的挑战同样适用于设计用于焊接工艺和食品切割应用的新型超声波装置。目前，超声波焊接机是大型组件，但随着电子和医疗设备的智能化，连接不同材料（如金属，陶瓷和玻璃）的能力变得至关重要。食品的超声波切割已被证明是一种有效的技术，在提高切割速度的同时，大大减少了产品浪费，提高了切割质量。然而，超声波切割器往往是仅能够切割有限范围的食品的大型工具。对于这两种应用，超声波钻孔器/取芯器的成功设计将为新一代低功率超声波焊接设备和切割器的设计提供机会，适用于更广泛的材料。Branson Ultrasonics的英国分公司是第二个工业合作伙伴，是超声波焊接的市场领导者，由于与食品行业的密切关系，最近开发了几项用于食品超声波切割的新创新。因此，布兰森在英国处于一个独特的位置，可以在这个研究项目中进行合作。