Development of seafloor directional drilling system for wreck salvage

The emerging need of large-tonnage wreck salvage has brought more severe challenges to its working depth and operation efficiency. This paper demonstrates an automatic steel cable traction method based on seafloor directional drilling to achieve rapid layout of steel cables for wreck salvage. Considering the application requirements and operation conditions for wreck salvage, the overall design plan is proposed for seafloor directional drilling system with superior technical specifications. The structure design and working principle for several key components in the seafloor directional drilling system are introduced in detail. Furthermore, the design and check procedure for transmission mechanisms in both coiled tubing injection head and guided drilling tool is formulated to ensure the kinematics and dynamics performance. The proposed system offers advantages in reasonable structure, flexible mode and reliable performance to achieve the functionalities of directional drilling and stable traction, which can significantly contribute the equipment and technology to large-tonnage wreck salvage.