2017_EJRNL_PP_Tao_Zhang_1.pdf
Terbatas Irwan Sofiyan
» ITB
Terbatas Irwan Sofiyan
» ITB
Lunar drilling will work in an extreme environment and may lead to a high drilling temperature due to
the poor heat dissipation approaches, with potentially devastating effects on the drill tool. This paper presents
a mathematical thermal model for predicting the drilling temperature in lunar regolith exploration.
The proposed model combines a unique heat balance equation for the system of the drill tool and the
drilled cuttings. Modeling of the drill tool-cuttings system assumes an axial temperature distribution
along the drill tool and one-dimensional transient heat transfer problem in a semi-infinite plane is
employed to calculate the temperature. Geometric features of the drill tool, thermal and mechanical
properties of the drill tool and lunar regolith, drilling parameters, and penetration force are taken into
consideration in the model. The theoretical investigation addresses the significance of heat generation
by the penetration force and heat dissipation by the drilled cuttings. Convolution is utilized to establish
the heat transfer processes along the drill tool. Using the presented thermal model, a thermal property
test bed was employed to simulate drilling in an evacuated lunar environment, and experimental and
computational temperatures were compared in penetrating a lunar regolith simulant with different drilling
parameters. Experimental results indicated that the theoretical model was effective in predicting the
drilling temperature in sampling the lunar regolith simulant.