Concept and Testing of a Remotely Operated Vehicle-Mountable Inductive Electrothermal Polar Under-Ice Corer

Ice core samples from the polar ice shelves contain valuable paleo-climatic records and information for understanding the unique polar under-ice ecosystem. This paper describes the finite element analysis-aided design, development, and qualification of a 63-mm-inner diameter, 250-mm-long variable power underwater remotely operated vehicle-mountable inductive ice corer (IIC) for collecting ice core samples beneath the polar ice shelves. It is determined that, with the IIC operating with an input power of 1,000 W at 30 kHz, it is possible to have an ice penetration rate of 14 mm/min and obtain an ice core of 51 mm in diameter. The experimental results are found to comply with the numerical model with an accuracy of 95%.