The demand of dredging for various purposes, such as reclamation, build artificial islands, maintain harbors, and clean channels, have been rising because of the development of dredging industry, the increase of population, national strategy, and larger draft vessel.
Dredging in mining industry is used for obtaining essential industrial material such as gold, tin, Ni, Mo etc, and dredging in channels are to prevent a vessel from encountering the channel bottom.
The cutter suction dredger can perform both on dredging and pumping, therefore, it is widely used on dredging navigable waterways for variable materials. The cutter suction dredger is also acting more efficiently than other type of dredgers with sand dredge pumps, when it is working, the excavated material is rotated by the cutter enters the pipe inlet or rubber hose on the suction side of the sand pump and then is transported to a barge or a placement site through a HDPE pipeline.
The maximum operating water depth for the cutter dredger with an aboard sand dredge pump is maximum 30-35 meters, whereas, a located ladder pump or submerged pump can help cutter dredger operates in deeper depths.
It is important to estimate production of the dredged material(Miedema 2008).For the cutter suction dredge,production is a function of the operating flow rate, the solids concentration by volume, and the dredging efficiency.In addition, the operating flow rate is highly related to the critical flow rate, the net positive suction head(NPSH), and pump characteristics. Turner (1996)estimates production for hydraulic dredges based on these parameters. In order to prevent pump cavitation and overcome the power limitation of any individual pump, the main pump, ladder pump,and booster pumps must be located properly.
Keyword: Cutter Suction Dredger, Main Dredge Pump, Ladder Pump, Booster Pump
