KR101798877B1 - Apparatus for electromagnectic surveys in marine - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a marine electromagnetic exploration device. A marine electromagnetic exploration device according to the present invention includes: a main body having an accommodation portion formed therein and formed of a waterproof material such that seawater is not able to be introduced thereto; an electromagnetic probe installed at a lower portion of the accommodation portion of the main body; a transmitting body adhering to a lower end of the electromagnetic prove, guiding electromagnetic waves emitted from the electromagnetic probe, and having lower electrical conductivity than seawater; and purified water filled in the accommodation portion of the main body, and having lower electrical conductivity than the transmitting body such that the electromagnetic waves emitted from the electromagnetic probe is guided to the transmitting body.

Description

[0001] APPARATUS FOR ELECTROMAGNECTIC SURVEYS IN MARINE [0002]

The present invention relates to a resource exploration technique, and more particularly, to an electromagnetic exploration technique for detecting manganese nodules or hydrothermal deposits in a seabed.

Marine resource development is attracting attention.

The oceans account for about 70% of the surface area of the earth, and of course there are abundant seabed resources. In particular, manganese nodules in the seabed are concentrated on manganese, cobalt, nickel, and copper, which are classified as strategic metals, and are attracting attention worldwide. Also, submarine hydrothermal deposits including gold, silver, copper, .

Ocean exploration, which precedes the development of seabed resources, is used for image exploration, seismic exploration, magnetic exploration, and electromagnetic exploration. Image surveillance is based on underwater imaging. Submarine environment is dark, resolution is very low, and it is not suitable for marine exploration. Seismic and magnetic exploration are more reliable than image exploration, but have limitations in detection of manganese nodules and hydrothermal deposits. Therefore, it is reported that electromagnetic exploration that can directly use electromagnetic properties is most effective for exploration of seabed resources such as metals and minerals.

The electromagnetic method will be briefly described.

Electromagnetic probing generates a primary electromagnetic field by applying a current (alternating current) to the transmission loop, and generates a secondary electromagnetic field (strictly primary and secondary An integrated field with integrated electromagnetic fields) is observed in the receive loop. As the probe travels, it continuously observes the electromagnetic field. When anomaly observations are measured in a specific area, it is analyzed to detect submarine resources. For example, hydrocarbons, which are energy resources, have very low electrical conductivity. Conversely, masses of metal such as manganese nodules have very high electrical conductivities, so the value of the secondary electromagnetic field is significantly different from the reference range.

When the above-described electromagnetic survey is performed in the ocean, there is a problem that the electromagnetic waves generated in the transmission loop are remarkably attenuated due to seawater having high electrical conductivity. The electromagnetic wave attenuates exponentially with respect to the electric conductivity and frequency of the medium. In order to reduce the attenuation in the seawater as much as possible, the electromagnetic probe must be brought close to the bottom of the sea bed. However, since the bottom of the sea floor is not flat, a minimum distance of 2 m is required. In order to solve this problem, electromagnetic wave exploration equipment including a transmission loop and a reception loop is inevitably enlarged.

In addition, since the electromagnetic waves are radiated from the exploration equipment in all directions, the electromagnetic waves reaching the bottom of the sea where the actual exploration is concentrated are only a part of the electromagnetic waves. That is, there is a problem that electromagnetic waves in the seawater having high electrical conductivity are attenuated and electromagnetic waves are radiated in all directions without directivity in a specific direction, resulting in deterioration of resolution and efficiency of electromagnetic exploration.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an electromagnetic wave sensor having an improved electromagnetic wave structure, And an object of the present invention is to provide a surveying apparatus and a system.

On the other hand, other unspecified purposes of the present invention will be further considered within the scope of the following detailed description and easily deduced from the effects thereof.

In order to achieve the above object, a marine electromagnetic probe according to the present invention is divided into an in-loop type and a loop-loop type.

The in-loop type electromagnetic field probe according to the in-loop type includes: a body formed of a waterproof material so that a receiving portion is formed therein and seawater is prevented from entering; An electromagnetic probe installed at a lower portion of the main body accommodating portion; A carrier which comes in close contact with a lower end of the electromagnetic probe to induce electromagnetic waves emitted from the electromagnetic probe and has a lower electrical conductivity than seawater; And purified water having a lower electrical conductivity than that of the carrier so that the electromagnetic wave radiated from the electromagnetic probe is directed toward the carrier, the purified water being filled in the receiving portion of the main body.

In the in-loop type, both the transmitting coil and the receiving coil are provided to transmit and receive electromagnetic waves in the electromagnetic probe. However, in the loop-loop type, the transmitting coil and the receiving coil are disposed apart from each other. Therefore, in the loop-loop type, there are differences in that a plurality of the electromagnetic probing apparatuses of the above-described configuration are disposed apart from each other in the ocean. That is, in the in-loop type, the transmitting coil and the receiving coil are disposed in one electromagnetic probe. In the loop-loop type, however, the transmitting coil is disposed in one electromagnetic probe and the receiving coil is disposed in the other electromagnetic probe. Or an electromagnetic probe mounted on a loop-loop type may be capable of transmitting and receiving, respectively, but the transmitting function is carried out in the former stage and the receiving function is carried out in the electromagnetic probe arranged in the latter stage.

In this embodiment, the marine electromagnetic probe is disposed in the ocean, and the probe and the main body are interconnected by a tow line, and the main body is towed by the probe in the ocean.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the main body is provided with a through hole through which the purified water can flow in and out, and the pull string is hollow and communicates with the through hole, Purified water can be injected and discharged. Particularly, when the purified water is injected into the main body, the main body descends below the seawater, and when the purified water is discharged from the main body, the main body rises above the sea surface.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the body is an insulator and may be made of, for example, a rubber material.

The carrier may be made of a sand stone material or a glass material.

In the present invention, an open mount is formed in a lower portion of the main body, and the carrier is coupled to the mount so that the main body is sealed.

The marine electromagnetic probe according to the present invention has an advantage of improving the efficiency of electromagnetic exploration because the electromagnetic wave emitted from the electromagnetic probe can be directed to the undersurface.

Accordingly, the size of the electron probe can be reduced, which makes it easy to install and operate.

In addition, according to the present invention, when the purified water is injected, the body is lowered due to its own weight, and when the purified water is discharged, there is an advantage that the use of the probe is convenient because it floats by buoyancy.

On the other hand, even if the effects are not explicitly mentioned here, the effect described in the following specification, which is expected by the technical features of the present invention, and its potential effects are treated as described in the specification of the present invention.

1 is a diagram for explaining a loop-loop method during electromagnetic exploration.
2 is a view for explaining an in-loop method during electromagnetic exploration.
3 is a schematic diagram of a marine electromagnetic exploration system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a schematic cross-sectional view taken along the line AA of Fig.
* The accompanying drawings illustrate examples of the present invention in order to facilitate understanding of the technical idea of the present invention, and thus the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto.

In the following description of the present invention, a detailed description of known functions and configurations incorporated herein will be omitted when it may obscure the subject matter of the present invention.

Hereinafter, a marine electromagnetic probe according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a view for explaining a loop-loop method during electromagnetic exploration, and FIG. 2 is a view for explaining an in-loop method during electromagnetic exploration.

The marine electromagnetic probe method is divided into a loop-loop method of a bistatic structure as shown in FIG. 1 and an in-loop method of a monostatic structure as shown in FIG.

First, a loop-loop method will be described with reference to FIG.

In the loop-loop exploration method, an electromagnetic probe 1 equipped with a transmission loop and an electromagnetic probe 2 equipped with a reception loop are arranged to be spaced apart from each other by hanging on a pull string 3 of a probe line 9. [ An electromagnetic probe 1 equipped with a transmission loop and an electromagnetic probe 2 equipped with a reception loop are placed at the rear end along the traveling direction of the probe 9. The electromagnetic probes 1 and 2 are placed at a certain depth in the ocean floor or near the sea floor. When the probe 9 moves, the two electromagnetic probes 1 and 2 are towed to the probe. When a current (mainly an alternating current) is applied to the transmission loop in the process of moving the probe 9, a primary electromagnetic field is formed. That is, electromagnetic waves propagate in the form of transverse waves (electromagnetic waves) in which the electric field and the magnetic field are perpendicular to each other. If there is no anomaly in the sea floor, that is, if only background media exist, a certain signal is received in the receive loop. On the other hand, if there is an anomaly in which electrical characteristics are different from those of the background medium, such as a manganese nodule having a high electrical conductivity at the seabed or a very low electrical conductivity hydrocarbon, an abnormal signal is received. That is, an induced current is formed in the anomalous body by the primary electromagnetic field, and a secondary electromagnetic field is generated by the induced current. An integration field is formed by integrating the primary electromagnetic field and the secondary electromagnetic field, and an abnormal signal different from the background medium is received in the reception loop. The probe can detect abnormal signals and probe the seabed resources.

In the loop-loop exploration method, the transmission loop and the reception loop are mounted on separate electromagnetic probes. However, as shown in FIG. 2, in the in-loop probe method, the transmission loop and the reception loop are installed in one electromagnetic probe 7 . There is no difference in the loop-loop exploration method and detection principle, except that transmission and reception are performed together in one electromagnetic probe.

However, since the in-loop method has high spatial resolution due to its high output using high-frequency band, it mainly performs a precise survey on the seabed with low depth. On the other hand, the loop-loop method differs in that it mainly uses the low-frequency band to perform the broadband and deep seam exploration.

The marine electromagnetic probe according to the present invention can be used in both of the above two methods, thereby providing two embodiments.

FIG. 3 is a view for explaining a marine electromagnetic probe according to the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a schematic sectional view taken along line A-A of FIG.

3 and 4, the marine electromagnetic probe apparatus according to the first embodiment is for the in-loop probe method and includes a main body 10, an electromagnetic probe 20, a carrier 30, and purified water 40 do.

The main body 10 is for mounting the electromagnetic probe 20 on the ocean. The main body 10 has a closed structure, and the receiving portion 11 is formed as an empty space inside. The main body 10 is preferably formed in a streamlined shape to reduce the frictional force against seawater.

Since the main body 10 is disposed in the deep sea, it must be waterproof and able to withstand water pressure. And is preferably made of an insulator for the directionality of the electromagnetic wave generated in the electromagnetic probe 20 to be described later.

In this embodiment, the main body 10 is made of a rubber material so that the function of the main body 10 can be smoothly performed. Further, since the body 10 is disposed in the deep sea and high pressure can be applied, the thickness of the rubber can be adjusted to withstand the water pressure.

The main body 10 can be towed at one side of the main body 10 when the towline t connected to the probe is coupled and the probe line is moved. In this embodiment, a hose h for injecting purified water 40 is inserted into the pull string t. And the hose h communicates with the through hole provided at one side of the main body 10. [ The purified water 40 can be injected or discharged from the probe through the hose h to the receiving portion 11 inside the main body 10. [ When the purified water 40 is injected into the receiving portion 11, the main body 10 sinks below the sea surface due to its own weight. When the purified water is discharged, the main body 10 rises above the sea surface by buoyancy.

In the first embodiment, since the electromagnetic probe 20 is in an in-loop form, it has a transmission loop and a reception loop together. As described above, in the transmission loop, a current is applied to form a primary electromagnetic field. In the reception loop, an integrated electromagnetic field formed from the sea floor is received in an electromagnetic wave form to detect the presence of an anomalous body.

The present invention is characterized in that the carrier 30 is provided together with the purified water 40 so that the electromagnetic wave emitted from the electromagnetic probe 20 is concentrated toward the sea floor without spreading to all directions. As described in the prior art, however, the electromagnetic waves emitted from the electromagnetic probe are not concentrated on the undersurface, but propagate to all directions, so that the amount of electromagnetic waves emitted to the bottom surface, which is the object of actual detection, is limited.

Therefore, in the present invention, the carrier 30 is attached to the lower portion of the EM probe 20, and the other portion of the EM probe 20 is designed to be surrounded by the purified water 40. More specifically, the mounting structure 17 is formed on the lower side of the main body 10, and a frame 18 is formed around the mounting opening 17. As shown in FIG. The carrier 30 is inserted into the mounting hole 17 and is hermetically fixed. When the carrier 30 is mounted on the main body 10, the main body 10 is hermetically closed to prevent intrusion of seawater.

Purified water is water from which all ions such as sodium and calcium are filtered out from water, and its electric conductivity is very low, but its dielectric constant is high. In addition, the body 10 containing the purified water is also made of rubber, which is an insulator, and the electric conductivity is extremely low. The carrier 30 attached to the lower part of the electron probe 20 has a higher electrical conductivity than purified water. Therefore, the electromagnetic wave emitted from the electromagnetic probe 20 is not propagated to the purified water 40 having extremely low electrical conductivity, but propagated through the carrier 30 having a relatively high electrical conductivity. Since the carrier 30 is directed to the seabed surface, most of the electromagnetic waves emitted from the electromagnetic probe 20 can be concentrated on the sea floor. In the present invention, the direction of electromagnetic waves is imparted by using the purified water (40) and the carrier (30) so that electromagnetic waves can concentrate mostly on the sea floor. Therefore, even if an electromagnetic probe of the same performance is used, the practical efficiency of the electromagnetic probe is far superior to the present invention. In other words, in the present invention, even if the output of the electromagnetic wave is much lower, the same efficiency as that of the conventional electromagnetic probe can be obtained. This directly affects the size of the probe.

In the present embodiment, the inside of the main body 10 is filled with purified water so as to surround the electron probe 20, and the carrier 30 made of sandstone is installed in the lower part of the electron probe 20. However, You can choose different materials. An important point in material selection is electrical conductivity. First, the carrier 30 should have a lower electrical conductivity than seawater. The higher the electrical conductivity, the lower the efficiency of the electromagnetic wave because of the electromagnetic attenuation. However, the electrical conductivity of the carrier 30 must be higher than that of the material surrounding the electromagnetic probe 20. This is because the electromagnetic wave propagates to a relatively higher electrical conductivity. It is preferable that the material filled in the body has a low electrical conductivity. In accordance with this view, in other embodiments, the carrier may be formed of a glass material instead of sandstone. In the case of fillers, other materials with low electrical conductivity other than purified water may be used.

 In the in-loop probe apparatus according to the present invention, a bucking coil is provided inside the electromagnetic probe, and the primary magnetic field can be removed. Thus, the secondary magnetic field can be measured and analyzed in real time in real time.

On the other hand, in the case of the surveying apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention, there is a difference only in that a plurality of surveying apparatuses having the above-described configuration are provided, and only a transmission loop or a reception loop exists in each of the electromagnetic probes. In other words, two configurations shown in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 for describing the first embodiment are shown as the electromagnetic probe 20, only one transmission loop is provided on one side and only a reception loop is provided on the other side. The rest of the configuration is the same, and detailed description will be omitted.

As described above, the marine electromagnetic probe according to the present invention has an advantage of improving the efficiency of electromagnetic exploration because the electromagnetic wave emitted from the electromagnetic probe can be directed to the undersurface.

Accordingly, the size of the electron probe can be reduced, which makes it easy to install and operate.

In addition, according to the present invention, when the purified water is injected, the body is lowered due to its own weight, and when the purified water is discharged, there is an advantage that the use of the probe is convenient because it floats by buoyancy.

The scope of protection of the present invention is not limited to the description and the expression of the embodiments explicitly described in the foregoing. It is again to be understood that the present invention is not limited by the modifications or substitutions that are obvious to those skilled in the art.

100 ... marine electromagnetic probe
10 ... main body, 11 ... receiving portion, 17 ... mounting portion, 18 ... frame
20 ... Electron probe, 30 ... Carrier, 40 ... Purified water
t ... towline, h ... hose

Claims (12)

A main body formed of a waterproof material so that a receiving portion is formed therein and seawater is prevented from being inflowed thereto;
An electromagnetic probe installed at a lower portion of the main body accommodating portion;
A carrier which comes in close contact with a lower end of the electromagnetic probe to induce electromagnetic waves emitted from the electromagnetic probe and has a lower electrical conductivity than seawater; And
And a filling material filled in the receiving part of the main body and having a lower electrical conductivity than that of the carrier so that the electromagnetic wave emitted from the electromagnetic probe is directed toward the transmitting body. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the probe is interconnected by the main body and the pull string, and the main body is towed in the ocean by the pull string. 3. The method of claim 2,
The filling material is purified water,
The main body is formed with a through hole through which the purified water can flow in and out,
Wherein the pull string is hollow and communicates with the through hole so that purified water can be poured into and discharged from the receiving portion of the main body through the pull string and the through hole. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the main body is an insulator. 5. The method of claim 4,
Wherein the main body is made of rubber. The method according to claim 1,
Characterized in that the carrier is made of sand stone material or glass material. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the filling material is purified water. The method according to claim 1,
An open mount is formed in a lower portion of the main body,
Wherein the carrier is coupled to the mount so that the main body is hermetically sealed. The method according to claim 1,
The filling material is purified water,
When the purified water is injected into the main body, the main body descends below the seawater,
Wherein when the purified water is discharged from the main body, the main body ascends above the sea surface. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the main body is formed in a streamlined shape. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the electromagnetic probe is provided with a bucking coil. A plurality of marine electromagnetic probe apparatuses according to any one of claims 1 to 10,
The plurality of marine electromagnetic probing apparatuses are spaced apart from each other in the ocean. In the marine electromagnetic probe apparatus disposed on one side, electromagnetic waves are transmitted toward the object. In the marine electromagnetic probe apparatus disposed on the other side, Wherein the electromagnetic field is detected by the detector.

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