Comparative analysis of the results of assessing the technical level of HDD machines using various methods

Anastasia Sklyarova, a PhD student at the Department of Land Transport and Technological Machines, and her supervisor Aleksandr Pushkarev, a professor at the Department, developed an algorithm and computer program to assess the technical level of horizontal directional drilling (HDD) machines and the prospects for modernizing such machines.

HDD installations differ significantly in engine power, maximum well expansion diameter, working mixture pressure and other parameters. All this makes it difficult to choose a machine to perform work in specific conditions and, what is especially important, does not allow to determine the direction of further development of this very promising technology.

The developers have proposed an algorithm for assessing the technical level of machines. For ease of practical use of the algorithm, an original computer program was created.

In order to verify the effectiveness of the algorithm, the evaluation results of HDD machines obtained with its help were compared with similar estimates obtained by the traditional expert method. The results are presented in Pic. 1. Both ratings coincided. But the proposed algorithm demonstrates the dependence of changes in the technical level of a particular machine as a whole on changes in its specific parameter. This suggests to machine developers promising directions for modernizing this equipment.

The proposed algorithm and the program that implements it eliminate the shortcomings of the expert method (the subjectivity of the decision made and the impossibility of prompt re-evaluation in case of changes in one of the analyzed parameters), allowing one to obtain reliable information about the existing technical level of equipment and the possibilities for its improvement.

The algorithm and program “Analytical model for assessing the technical level of horizontal directional drilling technology in a given system of restrictions” were developed as part of the grant for the implementation of research works by SPbGASU scientific and pedagogical workers in 2023. An application was submitted for registration of intellectual property for the developed computer program.