Blackfish was responsible for the full system test rig design for a marine engineering client, covering rock anchor and tether testing at 1:10 scale.

The Challenge

The client's existing test rig was producing inconsistent results between test runs. Working from research the client had shared, Blackfish identified the cause: without a reliable way to reset and evenly layer the sand bed between tests, density varied from run to run, and so did the data.

Our Approach

Blackfish designed and built a sand pluviator - a device that deposits sand into the test pit in a controlled, repeatable way - and validated the concept on the existing rig before scaling up.

Key elements of the work included:

• Design, manufacture, assembly, commissioning and operation of a 1:10 scale test rig for rock anchors and tethers, approximately 6m × 2.5m × 2m, including a sand pit and a load actuation frame applying dynamic loads of up to 10kN

• Design and manufacture of a novel sand pluviator, with capacity for up to 2 tonnes of sand, remote open/close operation, and regulated sand mass flow

• Design and development of the rock anchor, including a novel socket termination

• Design and development of the tether, including novel load-shedding attachments

Outcome

The pluviator delivered a significant improvement in data quality and repeatability, giving the client confidence in test results that the previous rig could not reliably produce.