Simulation Study on the Sediment Dispersion during Deep-Sea Nodule Harvesting

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

During the harvesting of polymetallic nodules on the seabed, the sediment plume due to disturbance on the seabed impacts the benthic ecosystem. A numerical simulation based on the SPH (smooth particle hydrodynamics) method is used to estimate the time and length scale of the plume impact near the seabed during a small-scale harvesting process. The simulation result considerably agrees with the one from the lab-scale water-channel experiment. It is found that, in the sediment plume, the traced sub-plume with iso-surface of lower sediment concentration travels a longer distance, and spends a longer time to achieve the stable state. Moreover, with the increase of the releasing rate of the disturbed sediment, the sub-plume spreads over greater distance, which also needs more time to achieve the stable state.