Research on the oil tank sludge cleaning robot system

Abstract

Aimed at tackling the disadvantages of conventional oil storage tank sludge cleaning operations, a new oil storage tank sludge cleaning robot system is designed for performing cleaning work instead of manual cleaning that is characteristic of low safety, low efficiency, long time and environmental pollution problems. The robot system consists of robot, suction pump, hydraulic pump station, remote control center, windlass and so on, amongst them the modular structures have been adopted in the robot, which makes it possible to assemble all subsystems in the tank after having put them into the tank through a narrow manhole; Based robot motion characteristics analyzed and discussed, matching the track, hydraulic motors and other key components; based on finite element analysis and design of the shoveling, high-pressure water jet and mechanical shoveling so as to clean the polymorphic sludge effectively. The system tests in the Shengli Oil Field has shown that the oil tank sludge cleaning robot is able to perform cleaning operation in adverse oil storage tanks effectively, safely and reliably by utilizing hot industrial waste water jet under high pressure. ©2010 IEEE.