Lecture |
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Monday 15 March 2010
Institution of Mechanical Engineers
Lecture Theatre
1 Birdcage Walk
London
SW1H 9JJ United Kingdom
The majority of rope applications are safety critical where failure can cause loss of life, damage and disruption. Those applications which involve great depth are amongst the most challenging. The lecture will focus on two:
- hoisting in “ultra deep” (> 3000m) mine shafts, where the objective is the safe raising and lowering of a conveyance holding 250 miners at speeds up to 22m/sec (~ 50 mph)
- offshore operations but particularly mooring floating oil production systems in deep waters (~ 2000m) where the effectiveness of “station keeping” is the primary criterion
Although simple mechanics can help us understand a lot about these systems, not all the answers are obvious.
