Contrastive and Experimental Study on the Characteristics of Bauxite during Shipping

Abstract

International transport of commodities is one of the most important parts of the shipping industry. Among bulk commodities, solid bulk cargo with potential liquefaction is classified as Group A according to the International Maritime Solid Bulk Code, the accidents of which suffered by carriers have aroused attention. Among the Group A, Bauxite has the similar liquefaction behavior during maritime transportation. It is of great significance to find out the liquefaction characteristics of bauxite to illustrate the accident of bauxite carrier and to prevent the occurrence of new accidents. At first, general properties of bauxite was reviewed. And then the distribution of moisture content was found out according to the statistical data, moreover, other properties of samplings were compared with those of other bauxite, such as saturation, particle distribution, compactness and density. Third work to find out characteristics of bauxite is experimental analysis based on the bench of vibration and the rolling table. Liquefaction behavior under vibration condition and fluidization behavior under rolling environment were found out from the bauxite with moisture content above 8%. These boundary conditions of liquefaction and longitudinal fluidization obtained were helpful to decision-making to confirm the transportability of bauxite and the cargo worthiness of carriers. More importantly, the migration mechanism of bauxite particle and moisture helps manage risk and emergency response during the whole maritime transportation.