Design and Simulation of a Tank Floor Cleaning Mechanism for Mobile Robots used in Storage Tanks
02 Jul 2019-
TL;DR: In this article, a screw conveyor based sludge cleaning mechanism is proposed to clean the sticky sludge from the floor of aboveground oil storage tanks and interface effectively with tank inspection robots to perform cleaning and inspection synchronously.
Abstract: Oily sludge on the floor of the tank is a significant problem for petrochemical industries and floor inspection robots. Oily sludge is a hazardous material containing a complex mixture of hydrocarbon, water, sand, and minerals deposited on the floor of the oil storage tanks. Sludge accelerates corrosion, reduces storage capacity, sticks to floor inspection robots and disrupts further tank operations Industries have started deploying robots in a tank to automate and replace the hazardous manual tank tasks. This paper presents the design of a screw conveyor based sludge cleaning mechanism to clean the sticky sludge from the floor of aboveground oil storage tanks and interface effectively with tank inspection robots to perform cleaning and inspection synchronously. The cleaning mechanism consists of a screw conveyor mounted on a 'C' shaped case with a bearing on both sides, a waterproof motor connected to the screw conveyor with a worm-wheel gear. A Rheometer is used for measuring sludge properties to understand its flow behavior. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) based numerical simulation is performed to visualize the flow of oily sludge through the proposed cleaning mechanism.
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01 Feb 2021
TL;DR: In this paper, a screw-convex screw conveyor based system was proposed to scoop crude oil sludge from the floor of oil storage tanks using a worm drive and a bearing on both sides driven by a waterproof motor.
Abstract: This paper presents the design optimization and testing of a novel screw conveyor based system to scoop crude oil sludge from the floor of oil storage tanks This proposed new system consists of a screw conveyor mounted on a ‘C’ shaped casing with a bearing on both sides driven by a waterproof motor through a worm drive A novel mathematical model is developed to help the design of a screw conveyor for a maximum amount of sludge scooping per turn, and numerical simulations are performed using computational fluid dynamics to visualize the flow of material particles in various possible designs of the system The proposed mechanism was 3D printed, and laboratory tests were conducted to quantify the amount of sludge removal by the different designs of the screw Optimized design of a mechanism screw with a radius ratio of 040 and a pitch ratio of 015 scoops up to a maximum of 588 kg hr of material at 110 rev min
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Journal Article•
TL;DR: In this paper, the requirements of the working and safety norms demonstrate significant need of increased efficiency and improved working conditions in cleaning confined spaces, and an overview of these norms is presented.
Abstract: The requirements of the working and safety norms demonstrate significant need of increased efficiency and improved working conditions in cleaning confined spaces. This paper presents an overview of ...
6 citations
"Design and Simulation of a Tank Flo..." refers background in this paper
...The most common failure mode in above-ground storage tanks (AST) is stress corrosion along the welding seams of the steel plates or the destructive process leading to pitting or even complete section loss, as oil leaks from the tank enter the soil and pollute the environment [4,5]....
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05 Jan 2015
TL;DR: In this article, an alternative cleaning method using a Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicle (ROV) is proposed, using ROV, water supply disruption can be prevented and cleaning process will be more efficient and cost effective.
Abstract: Clean water supply is important in ensuring good health of people Water supply is distributed from water storage tanks Sediment that accumulates over time in water storage tanks will deteriorate the water quality used by consumers Therefore, water storage tanks are required to be cleaned once in every three years by water utility operators or tank cleaning service providers Manual cleaning method is done by draining off and resupply water into the tank after workers have cleaned the tank using water jet and brushes In this paper, an alternative cleaning method using a Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicle (ROV) is proposed Using ROV, water supply disruption can be prevented and cleaning process will be more efficient and cost effective An ROV is built to operate underwater and vacuum out sediments from water tank Operator on screen can see live-streaming video Raspberry Pi is used as the main communication board to interface with MATLAB Operator will operates the ROV remotely to carry out the cleaning process IMU sensor was also used for simulation study in MATLAB for orientation movements testing
5 citations