First experimental investigation of dual-reciprocating drilling in planetary regoliths: Proposition of penetration mechanics

Analysis of drill head designs for dual-reciprocating drilling technique in planetary regoliths

“….59 14.48 Table 2: High and low level parameters changes in the force versus depth profiles due to density are consistent, the profiles for the substrate types are very different, as discussed in (Gouache et al, 2011a). It is believed this variance in profile could cause the drill heads to behave differently.…”

“…The ge-ometrical parameters give the shape of the drill head design, the operational parameters are defined by the technical implementation and experimental set-up and the substrate parameters describe the characteristics of the chosen substrate. Currently, only the effects of the operational and substrate parameters have been studied in detail (Gouache et al, 2011a).…”

“…To ensure consistency, the simulant bed was reset after each experiment. Table 3: Properties of the SSC-1 and SSC-2 regolith simulants (Gouache et al, 2011a) As the focus of these experiments is on the geometrical parameters, the overhead force and reciprocation frequency and amplitude will be kept constant, at values similar to those used in previous experiments (Frame, 2012). These are determined by the set-up of the test rig shown in Figure 4, which is explained in detail in (Gouache et al, 2011a).…”

“…This is converted to an additional compressive force available to the penetrating half, reducing the overhead force needed to overcome the required penetration force (Gao et al, 2007a), as shown in Figure 1. (Gouache et al, 2011a) A prototype design was built and tested, and has shown the potential of DRD for drilling low strength rocks, with an energy efficiency comparable to other drilling techniques (Gao et al, 2007b). Experiments were then performed in regolith using a custom-built test bench and new drill head design which studied the effects of the reciprocating frequency and amplitude in different regolith simulants (Gouache et al, 2009(Gouache et al, , 2011a.…”

“…(Gouache et al, 2011a) A prototype design was built and tested, and has shown the potential of DRD for drilling low strength rocks, with an energy efficiency comparable to other drilling techniques (Gao et al, 2007b). Experiments were then performed in regolith using a custom-built test bench and new drill head design which studied the effects of the reciprocating frequency and amplitude in different regolith simulants (Gouache et al, 2009(Gouache et al, , 2011a. This demonstrated the DRD's ability to dig further than static penetration, though high levels of slippage, caused by the receding drill half moving upwards instead of gripping the substrate, were observed.…”