7. Ultrasonically-Assisted Penetration of Granular and Cemented Materials

Granular material can often be penetrated by the application of high-frequency vibrations. This effect may be seen in loosely packed granular material, in permafrost where the discrete grains exist in an icy matrix, and even where those grains have been compacted and cemented to form a sedimentary rock. For space applications, the vibrations may be reasonably generated by a Langevin transducer and their energy delivered to the target material by a number of different mechanisms, depending on the nature of the target and the depth or bore diameter of the desired drill campaign. The application of such vibrations is generally associated with reductions in weight-on-bit and power requirements when compared to more traditional techniques.