DEVELOPMENT OF RFID SYSTEM FOR MEASURING ORE MODEL VELOCITY IN LIFTING EXPERIMENT

New technology was proposed to transport heavy and large ores from deep seafloor to sea surface by circulating carrier material in riser pipe. Carrier material, which is comprised of viscous fluids and fine particles, has higher carrying capacity without degrading pumpability. In the experimental apparatus, the movement of ores must be observed from outside of the riser pipe to study the feasibility of proposed technology. However, visual observation cannot be used since carrier materials are not transparent. Therefore, new observation system was developed by using RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification). Measurements of read ranges of RFID under the experimental conditions and falling velocities of RF tag were conducted. These results demonstrated that RFID can observe the movements of ores in model lifting experiment. By using RFID system as instrumentation in model lifting experiments, it is found that particles in carrier materials contribute to enhance the effectiveness of ores transportation.