Vibration control and monitoring for soil drilling

From 2013 to 2015, HGL Dynamics participated in an EU-funded research program called SOIMON. This project was aimed at providing new technology for use in protecting sonic drilling equipment while making real-time down-hole contamination measurements for display at the surface.

The SOIMON project developed a system that can be used for monitoring the level of contaminants in soil being drilled, and to monitor and reduce the vibration experienced by the drill head.

The contaminants are measured using surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensors and also a scintillating crystal for radiometric measurements.

The vibration and damage are measured using a combination of accelerometers and acoustic emission sensors.

The project has its own website at www.soimon.eu.

Field testing of the completed system was carried out successfully in August 2015.