Research On Ice Drilling Process Using Portable Drill Rig With Gasoline Powered Engine

Drilling operations in Polar Regions and mountainous areas are complicated by extreme environment. Due to such reasons as power consumption and weight, it is hard to apply a conventional rotary drilling rigs for glacial exploration. Using of small, relatively lightweight, portable engine-powered drilling systems in which the drill lifting from the borehole is carried by the winch, is reasonable enough for near-surface shallow ice-drilling down to 50 m. Such systems can be used for ablation stakes installation, temperature measurements at the bottom of active layer, revealing of anthropogenic pollution, etc.To select the driving motor, the theoretical research has been carried out. The shaft power of the driving motor is defined by summarizing the power consumed for the fracturing of the ice, the rotation of the core barrel and the transport of the cuttings. The fracturing of the ice is calculating according to solid-state physics and disposition theory. Other aspects of total power consumption are calculating according to borehole drilling theory.The drill rig was designed with the help of modern CAD system Autodesk Inventor 2016. Drill is driven by gasoline engine. At this stage, it is crucial to choose effective drilling parameters such as weight on bit(WOB) and drill bit rotation rate. To study ice drilling process, the drill rig was modified in order to install required sensors. Sensors have measured main parameters of the drilling process, such as rate of penetration(ROP), WOB, drill rotation speed, torque and temperature. ROP was controlled by electric winch trough frequency controller. All sensors are connected to data acquisition modules which were in its turn together with frequency controller connected to the laptop and controlled by a specially designed software.In general, conception of the experimental engine-powered auger ice drill looks quite workable and with proper improvement, it would be possible to test it in the field.This thesis addresses research on drilling parameters of engine-powered auger ice drill and gives some recommendations for choosing effective drilling parameters and optimization of ice-core drilling process.