Underwater experimental study on breaking characteristics of deep-sea seafloor massive sulfide

Research on cutting seafloor massive sulfide is in its initial stages; however, the breaking characteristics are unclear. In addition, the influence of water was not considered in the experimental research, and the reliability of the experimental results was low. Therefore, this study conducted experimental research on underwater cutting characteristics based on a high-fidelity simulation material. The mean and maximum cutting forces increased linearly with the cutting depth. The load of cutting high compressive strength (HUCS) rocks is 2.78 times that of cutting low compressive strength (LUCS) rocks. With an increase in the cutting depth, the percentage of powdered rock decreased, the percentage of blocks increased, and the overall chip size increased. The overall chip size obtained by cutting the HUCS rock was larger than that obtained by cutting the LUCS rock. As the cutting depth increases, the cutting-specific energy consumption decreases. Cutting HUCS rock consumes more energy than cutting LUCS rock. In summary, the cutting depth of HUCS and LUCS rocks should be recommended to be 16mm. This research is of guiding significance for the optimisation of the mining head structure and mining engineering practice.