Translational and Rotational Motion Measurement of a Spherical Particle in Hydraulic Collecting

Research on the motion of particles in fluid conveying is significant for the mechanism study of the hydraulic collecting process in deep-ocean mining. Experiments were conducted in a water tank to measure the translational and rotational motion of spherical particles by developing a spherical detector with a built-in three-dimensional acceleration microsensor and a three-dimensional microgyroscope. The three-axis linear acceleration and angular velocity can be measured and stored by the detector. The attitude angle, defined as the spatial rotation of the detector coordinate system relative to the laboratory coordinate system and described via the Euler angle, is obtained with a quaternion algorithm and a Kalman filter. The method is validated with a 50 mm diameter spherical object by three respective tests. Finally, the detector is tested as a tracer particle in hydraulic collecting. Findings indicate that the method is capable of tracing the detailed behaviors of particles in hydraulic collecting.