Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Burnett, Justin
• Rack, Frank R.
• Blythe, Daren
• Swanson, Pat
• Duling, Dennis
• Gibson, Dar
• Carpenter, Chad
• Roberts, Graham
• Lemery, Jeff
• Fischbein, Steve
• Melby, Adam

Titel

Developing a hot-water drill system for the WISSARD project: 3. Instrumentation and control systems

Ist Teil von

• Annals of glaciology, 2014-12, Vol.55 (68), p.303-310

Erscheinungsjahr

2014

Quelle

EZB Electronic Journals Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Abstract The WISSARD (Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling) traversable hot-water drill system was designed to create various-diameter ice boreholes to a depth of >800 m, with most major components being controllable from a single user interface. The drill control system operates four low-pressure pumps for water generation and circulation, two hot-water generation units containing a total of six diesel burner modules with integrated high-pressure pumps, three winches (one with independent level-wind motor), a four-motor linear traction drive, and a large number of analog and digital sensors to monitor system performance and cleanliness. Due to development time constraints the control system design focused on utilizing commercial off-the-shelf components, while being highly modular, easily expandable and rapidly deployable. Additional emphasis was placed on providing redundant manual operator controls and maintaining a low degree of system automation to avoid dependence on software control loops for first-season deployment. The result of this design paradigm was a control system that was taken from concept to full operation in <6 months, successfully performing in the field without insurmountable problems.