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By F. D. Delve

RECENT studies by the author on the reduction of titanium from TiO2-bearing slags have been accompanied by difficulties that are attributed to

Jan 1, 1959

By J. L. Perry

FOR many years, you and your fellow members of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers have devotedly and ably applied yourselves to the art of making iron and steel. having foremost in your minds the conservation of raw materials, suitable and efficient facilities, economical processes, and improved quality of product. For the past three strenuous years you have contributed wholeheartedly to meeting the problems of increased production. You have conducted scientific and technical investigations and research, recommended experiments. and gathered all the available and valuable information possible to gain the desired objectives. You have had many obstacles and difficulties to overcome. In the early days of your organization, there was some lack of co-operation from the industry itself-perhaps, for example, some failure to recognize the mutual advantages of free exchange of experiences and information. But regardless of any hindrances, you have made many and valuable contribution which have tended to make iron and steel manufacture leas of an art and more of a science.

Jan 1, 1944

By E. S. Bumps

A series of macrographs are presented for the purpose of graphically recording the strain phenomenon that accompanies the energy transition in the Charpy impact testing of a mild steel that is susceptible to strain aging. STRAIN patterns in mild steel Charpy impact specimens were obtained in order to determine whether, on the first appearance of plastic strain during deformation, the initial fracture cracks appear in the region of plastic strain or in the elasti-cally deformed regions between. Although this attempt to locate the initiation of cleavage was not successful, the observed strain patterns illustrating various stress conditions in partially deformed Charpy specimens are presented along with a discussion of the possible dependence of transition energy on the yield phenomenon. Earlier work on the development of strain patterns in mild steel have been reported by Fry1 and later by Jevon.2 Harris, Rinebolt, and Raring3 observed characteristic strain markings on the surface of Charpy V-notch impact specimens fractured above and below the transition temperature which they presented schematically. It is intended that the strain figures presented here will add to the literature a graphic correlation of strain with transition energy in impact specimens. Samples of % in. round hot rolled, 0.20 pct C steel were machined to standard 0.394 in. sq, V-notch Charpy impact specimens. Preliminary testing involved determination of transition temperature, Fig. 1, using a Sontagg impact tester. These data were subsequently used to select temperatures above, within, and below the transition range at which specimens were partially deformed. Partial deformation was obtained by either varying the energy or the testing temperature, see Table I. Macroscopic strain figures shown in Figs. 2 to 19 were produced by several metallographic repolish-ing and etching steps. The macroetchant used was as follows:4 120 g HCl, concentrated; 100 ml water; and 90 g cupric chloride. Strain figures were obtained on the outer surface and on sections through the central portion of the impact specimens in order to determine an approximation of the volumetric strain pattern. In the tensile strain figures reported by Jevon, it was found that strain etching would not work immediately following strain unless the material was heated to 200°C. The impact strain patterns presented here were obtained without this heating, but the specimens were not etched until ten months after straining. This confirms a discussion of Jevon's paper, in which it was pointed out that strain figures can also be developed after aging for long periods of time at room temperature. Hardness of the strained and unstrained portions, revealed by the etched pattern, was explored using R, impressions converted to R, hardness values. Discussion of Results In the impact test, as in the tensile test, some parts of the specimen yield and deform plastically, while other regions are deformed only elastically. The plastic deformation bears a relation to the imposed stress pattern. In the strain figures presented here, the plastically deformed regions are the dark etching ones. The strain figures are always symmetrical because the stress state in the Charpy-type specimen under impact loading is symmetrical. The difficulties encountered to produce initial cracks are intimated in Figs. 2 and 4. At a temperature of —75ºF, the stress was not sufficient to pro-

Jan 1, 1953

By Howard S. Strouth

SINCE the days of the Conquistadores, people have told exaggerated tales of the wealth and possibilities of Mexico and Central and South America, and the mining fraternity has never been known to exaggerate any less than any other professional group known to man or beast. However, during a short stay in Mexico one can probably hear more whoppers than at any other time, when dozens of mining propositions are thrust across the desk, and it is not necessary to remind anyone that a listing of the do's and don't's for Mexico requires special mention of the fact that most mining propositions offered south of the border eventually turn out to be a beautiful fairy tale. The following is not suposed to be either an exact description of Standard Mining Corp.'s operations in Mexico by its mining associate, the Corporacion Minera y Beneficiadora Anahuac, S.A., or the last word as to the most economical way to start such an operation. But rather it is the sum total of the recent experiences of the writer while commencing such an operation in 1951-52 with the help of many qualified gentlemen.

Jan 6, 1953

US 4,134,944-Production of iron oxide ore pellets of uniform size and excellent strength. Small pieces of ore are rolled into nuclei in a first pellet-rolling circuit in the presence of a binder, the nuclei sized and hardened by sintering or cold-bonding of the binder, the nuclei rolled in additional ore to form product pellets, the pellets sized, the suitable size fraction taken as product, and undersize pellets returned to the rolling operation. P. A. Ilmoni and R. Drugge, assigned to Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara AB Jan 16, 1979. 5 pp. (264-37) Filed- 5-25-77 (800,278) Priority: Sweden, 6-2-76 (76/06,¬241). Same British 1,553,763, dated Oct 10, 1979. US 4,145,210-In the induration of pellets of iron oxide ore or iron works dust or sludge, a charge of dried pellets and 2-20% by weight of coke having a size range of from 5 to 30 mm, a drum index of more than 70, a reactivity index of less than 50, and a tumbler index of more than 50 is charged into a rotary kiln The charge is heated and passed through the rotating kiln to indurate the dried pellets without burning the coke Powder-coated coke is recovered from the kiln for reuse. Ring formation in the kiln is substantially prevented. K. Kato and K Kadota, assigned to Sumitomo Metal Industries, Ltd, and Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd. Mar 20, 1979 10 pp (75-3) Filed- 2-22-77 (770,947) Priority: Japan, 2-24-76 (51/19,754) US 4,145,211-Method of cooling hot metallized iron oxide ore agglomerates from a direct reduction furnace Agglomer¬ates ranging from 3/a in to 41/2 in in cross-section and at a temperature of 1000-2000°F are formed into a moving bed while at rest relative to each other Air at ambient tempera¬ture is passed through the bed at a velocity sufficient to cool the agglomerates rapidly to a temperature no greater than about 500°F without substantial reoxidation of the metal in the agglomerates and by using air as the sole cooling gas. C A Czako, A Berzins, and M J Greaves, assigned to Arthur G McKee & Co Mar. 20, 1979 15 pp. (75-34) Filed: 7-18-77 (816,467)

Jan 1, 1980

By Joseph Ames

THERE are two distinct questions associated with the concept of temperature: one is practical, the other is theoretical. Our fundamental ideas of temperature come from our senses; we know what we mean by the words "hot" and "cold," or by saying one body is "hotter than another." But for scientific purposes words require definition. We are guided in this matter, as in all other scientific questions, by our knowledge of facts of observation. When two bodies at different temperatures are intimately associated, e.g., a hot stone is, dropped into a pail of water, our experience is that ultimately they come to the smile temperature as far as our senses can tell; the hot body becomes colder and the cold body hotter. In the case of a block of ice, immersed in, water, the ice melts, forming cold water, which then mixes with the other water, the final result being water colder than the original water. From our knowledge of the nature of heat phenomena, we learn that in this process one body loses, heat and the other gains heat, the condition of equilibrium being, one in which each body gains Is much heat as it loses. It is distinctly assumed in this statement that only two bodies are concerned in the transfer of heat, all other bodies being rendered in some way impervious to heat. The body that in the process loses heat is said to have the ?higher temperature" while the body that gains the heat is said to have the "lower temperature;" and, when thermal equilibrium is reached, the two bodies are said to have the "same temperature." Consequently, the temperature of a body may be defined, is it was by Maxwell, as "its thermal state considered with reference to its power of communicating heat to other bodies."

Jan 9, 1919

By John R. M. Hill, Gerald Zink, Fun-Den Wang

The work described in this paper is sponsored by the Bureau of Mines for the purpose of accelerating the drilling of roof bolt holes and reducing the quantity of materials needed to fill each hole. A high-speed, small-hole drill has been fabricated and tested in the laboratory. High Priority has been given to safety, reliability, and compatibility with underground coal mining practice. The combination of drag bits and erosion jets is designed for high penetration rate, long wear life, and uniform hole size in a variety of sedimentary strata. A reliable high-pressure, high-speed swivel feeds water to the bit at about 4 L/min (1 gpm). The duplex hydraulic intensifier which drives the jets has a 40-kW (30-hp) capacity. Results of recent full-scale laboratory testing (Now. 1977) are presented.

Jan 12, 1979

By NEWTON B. KNOX

IN Bolivia, mining is still the principal economic activity, as it was before and during the Spanish Colonial period. Tin, tungsten, antimony, copper, lead, zinc, gold, silver, sulphur, and a little bismuth are produced. The Andes mountains are divided into two main ranges in Bolivia; the Western range marks the border with Chile and the Eastern range forms the backbone of the country; in the North it drops rather abruptly eastward, to the plains of the Beni, whereas in the South it splits and is separated from the Chaco flatlands by a series of folded mountain ranges. In general the mineral deposits are found within the Eastern range or in the hills that rise from the high plateau between the ranges - really parts of the Eastern range partly submerged by recent sediments. The mineral belt is thus over 500 miles long and about 100 miles wide and includes most of the principal centers of population and the most important means of communication. The region is mountainous and the roads are bad; furthermore labor is a serious problem, for the land is poor and the agricultural population is never far from hunger. The floating supply of miners is limited and soon exhausted in any emergency like the present.

Jan 1, 1945

By Leo J. Vogel, E. D. Hummer

INTRODUCTION by E. D. HUMMER An efficient refuse-disposal system is a necessary part of the modem cleaning plant. The large-scale refuse system and disposal area, engineered for the lifetime of the plant, has become more important due to the greater tonnages of refuse produced from increased quantities of mechanically mined and prepared coal. Laws and increased government regulations have affected the design and operation of disposal systems. THE EFFECT OF MINE AND PLANT OPERATION Refuse disposal starts at the mining face. The mining system, the type of roof support, the machinery used, and the degree of discipline at the face contributes to the amount and type of refuse that must be removed through the disposal system. Economies gained through modification of the mining system or mining machinery may be partially offset by increased dilution of the mined coal with impurities from associated rock formations. In some cases the change in the mining system and equipment has reduced the dilution. In all cases the ratio of impurities that must be removed from the raw-coal feed to the plant not only affects the maintenance and operating costs of the plant, but greatly affects the design of the refuse disposal system. The design of a mine and plant should include the location and the estimated capacity of the disposal areas for the life of the property or plant. Complete evaluation of the disposal system and an estimate of its annual cost of operation over the life of the property or plant should be incorporated in the plant and mine evaluation. Plant design should be as simple as possible, consistent with the efficient production of clean coal. Material transfer points, crushing, screening and pumping operations should be kept to a minimum to reduce degradation and the subsequent increased difficulty and cost of refuse removal. The maintenance of good process control by operating management will result in a minimum of misplaced material in both refuse and clean coal. Reduction of misplaced float material in the plant refuse is an important factor in preventing combustion in the refuse storage pile. THE REFUSE DISPOSAL AREA Combustion in refuse piles occurs when air enters the pile in sufficient quantity to support oxidation. At certain rates of air in-filtration, the heat produced by the oxidation process is not dissipated and temperature rises.

Jan 1, 1968

By R. J. Robbins, D. L. Anderson

A tunnel boring machine has potential use in al- most any type of mining where the access shaft (or adit) is large enough or can be made large enough for its initial entry and where the orebody is of sufficient size to warrant its use. Some time will inevitably be lost in negotiating curves or making lateral moves and moving from level to level. Nevertheless, if the orebody is sufficiently large, advance scheduling can minimize the lost time encountered in such moves. Ideally, a mine will be planned for the use of these machines, thus eliminating access and transport problems. From the viewpoint of time involved, the rate of advance by boring as compared to conventional means is worthy of review. For instance, the Blanco Tunnel, one section of the Bureau of Reclamation's San Juan-Chama Project in southern Colorado, was bored in competent sedimentary rock with the following performance:

Jan 7, 1967

By Elmer A. Jones

Development work in mines of St. Joseph Lead Co., Southeast Missouri, using trackless loading equipment shows definite advantages: Speed of cleaning, ability to work on steep grades and sharp crosscuts, good later tracking conditions, and possibility of wasting rock in old abandoned stopes. THE Desloge mine is one of a group of mines owned by the St. Joseph Lead Co., in the so-called Lead Belt of Southeast Missouri. It has been operating approximately 40 years producing a daily tonnage ranging from 1600 to 3800, depending on various factors. On an average, the present mine is 300 ft deep with an extreme extent of 2.7 miles by 1.7 miles. Most of the present mining is in the lower horizons of the Bonne Terre dolomite, a fairly soft rock requiring no support except occasional channel iron and roof pins. Due to the contour of the underlying sandstone and porphyry, some development work has been through short stretches of these different formations. In some areas the lower part of the dolomite is quite sandy and generally is considered abrasive. Sizes and Methods of Drifting Have Changed: Development work has, like other phases of mining, changed considerably in the last 20 years, from cleaning by hand to the use of a mechanical method. The conception of a standard drift has also changed. Before the advent of mechanical loading in stopes there were many pieces of main line drift averaging 7 ft high x 9 ft wide. With the coming of the St. Joe shovel the drift was increased to 8 ft high x 10 ft ELMER A. JONES, Member AIME, is Assistant General Mine Superintendent, St. Joseph Lead Co., Bonne Terre, Mo. AIME Columbus Meeting, September 1949. TP 2859 A. Discussion (2 copies) may be sent to Transactions AIME before July 31, 1950. Manuscript received Sept. 16, 1949. wide. Now with the Joy loader and shuttle car, a 9x11 ft drift is coming to be standard size. Methods of cutting drifts have changed considerably over the last few years. Some changes in drilling equipment have been made such as reducing the weight of column, clamp, air feed, and fittings to go with the HC10 Cleveland jackhamer. Other changes have been made in drill steel such as the use of detachable bits; throw-away variety, screw type, and the tungsten-carbide insert bits. Later developments have introduced spiral-welded pipe with victaulic couplings, millisecond exploders, bulky powder, and the use of electric cap lamps. Experimental work is going on continually in various phases of development work, some to be tried and discarded, others gradually to become standard practice. To sum up, the standard method of development now in use at Desloge is as follows: The work is done on a two-shift cycle 7:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Two men known as development drillers comprise a crew on each shift. These two men arrive at their work about 7:30 to find a round blasted by the previous shift. After scaling down back and walls they proceed to the cleaning operation, using either a Joy loader and shuttle car, a drag hoist mounted on a slide ramp, or an Eimco Finlay to load into a 21/2 ton mine car. Cleaning may take from 2 to 4 hr depending on conditions such as length of round broken, length of haul, and other variables. After fitting up pipe and setting up columns and drills they are ready to drill a round which should measure 9 ft high x 11 ft wide and break from 5 to 7 ft advance. This may also take from 2 to 3 hr. Then they are ready to charge and

Jan 1, 1951

By Elmer A. Jones

Development work in mines of St. Joseph Lead Co., Southeast Missouri, using trackless loading equipment shows definite advantages: Speed of cleaning, ability to work on steep grades and sharp crosscuts, good later tracking conditions, and possibility of wasting rock in old abandoned stopes. THE Desloge mine is one of a group of mines owned by the St. Joseph Lead Co., in the so-called Lead Belt of Southeast Missouri. It has been operating approximately 40 years producing a daily tonnage ranging from 1600 to 3800, depending on various factors. On an average, the present mine is 300 ft deep with an extreme extent of 2.7 miles by 1.7 miles. Most of the present mining is in the lower horizons of the Bonne Terre dolomite, a fairly soft rock requiring no support except occasional channel iron and roof pins. Due to the contour of the underlying sandstone and porphyry, some development work has been through short stretches of these different formations. In some areas the lower part of the dolomite is quite sandy and generally is considered abrasive. Sizes and Methods of Drifting Have Changed: Development work has, like other phases of mining, changed considerably in the last 20 years, from cleaning by hand to the use of a mechanical method. The conception of a standard drift has also changed. Before the advent of mechanical loading in stopes there were many pieces of main line drift averaging 7 ft high x 9 ft wide. With the coming of the St. Joe shovel the drift was increased to 8 ft high x 10 ft ELMER A. JONES, Member AIME, is Assistant General Mine Superintendent, St. Joseph Lead Co., Bonne Terre, Mo. AIME Columbus Meeting, September 1949. TP 2859 A. Discussion (2 copies) may be sent to Transactions AIME before July 31, 1950. Manuscript received Sept. 16, 1949. wide. Now with the Joy loader and shuttle car, a 9x11 ft drift is coming to be standard size. Methods of cutting drifts have changed considerably over the last few years. Some changes in drilling equipment have been made such as reducing the weight of column, clamp, air feed, and fittings to go with the HC10 Cleveland jackhamer. Other changes have been made in drill steel such as the use of detachable bits; throw-away variety, screw type, and the tungsten-carbide insert bits. Later developments have introduced spiral-welded pipe with victaulic couplings, millisecond exploders, bulky powder, and the use of electric cap lamps. Experimental work is going on continually in various phases of development work, some to be tried and discarded, others gradually to become standard practice. To sum up, the standard method of development now in use at Desloge is as follows: The work is done on a two-shift cycle 7:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Two men known as development drillers comprise a crew on each shift. These two men arrive at their work about 7:30 to find a round blasted by the previous shift. After scaling down back and walls they proceed to the cleaning operation, using either a Joy loader and shuttle car, a drag hoist mounted on a slide ramp, or an Eimco Finlay to load into a 21/2 ton mine car. Cleaning may take from 2 to 4 hr depending on conditions such as length of round broken, length of haul, and other variables. After fitting up pipe and setting up columns and drills they are ready to drill a round which should measure 9 ft high x 11 ft wide and break from 5 to 7 ft advance. This may also take from 2 to 3 hr. Then they are ready to charge and

Jan 1, 1951

By Robert S. Young

During the last quarter-century, exploration for metallic deposits in Maine has been sporadic with peaks generally coinciding with periods of high metal prices. Known cases of regional or semi-regional evaluations are few; most efforts have been local and usually intensive. On the basis of broad geologic groups, the State has been divided into five fundamental environments: ( 1) coastal metamorphic belt; (2) southern volcanic belt; (3) Silurian slate belt; ( 4) northern volcanic belt; and ( 5) Devonian slate belt. Although not restricted to these areas, exploration in recent years has been concentrated in the northern and southern volcanic belts. Notable examples of recent exploration activity, directed to sulfide minerals, include: ( 1) the Knox County nickel-copper-bearing ultramafic rocks; (2) the Harborside (Cape Rosier) copper-zinc deposit; (3) the Second Pond (Black Hawk) zinc-copper-lead-silver deposit; ( 4) the Big Hill-Barrett lead-zincsilver- copper-gold zones; (5) the Parmachenee copper-zinc belt; ( 6) the Moxie Lake nickeliferous peridotite; and (7) the Attean quartzmonzonite molybdenum-copper occurrences. The Second Pond and Harborside prospects appear to be close to production. Systematic investigations for non-metallic deposits appear to have been aimed principally toward limestone, asbestos, diatomaceous earth, and spodumene-bearing pegmatites. Advances in prospecting methods, high metal prices, a favorable business outlook, increasing cooperation from large landholders, and some discoveries support the probability of increased exploration activity in Maine during the coming decade.

Jan 1, 1968

By John V. Beall

Copper production in the. United States in 1972 amounted to 1,658,000 tons according to the USBM. This figure is up over 1971 but falls below 1970 production of 1,719,101 tons. This report is essentially about the status of copper mining operations in the U.S. and is an update and expansion of the report "Southwest Copper-A Position Survey" published in [A=], October 1965. At that time, the trend was toward using larger equipment to mine lower grade ore and toward the expansion of dump leaching practice. That trend continues today but, it is overlain by intensive activity to comply with existing environ¬mental legislation and uncertainty over proposed revisions of venerable laws governing mining. In the U.S. today there is, practically speaking, no excess smelting capacity so that expansion of copper production through the startup of new mines is inhibited. Owners of a large undeveloped orebody would have to decide before going into production whether to sell the concentrates offshore, which has many problems, whether to try one of several unproved chemical processes for producing refined metal from concentrates or embarking on the construction of a traditional pyrometallurgical plant in the face of considerable uncertainty over the pollution standards that eventually must be met. The situation is such that not only is the present rate of U.S. copper production threatened but the ability to meet projected increased demand in the years ahead may have been severely retarded.

Jan 4, 1973

By Noel F. Boyd

Coal can be liquefied and gasified by several methods, all of which are being investigated and evaluated because each has its own advantages and disadvantages in terms of capital costs, end-products, and extent of required gas clean-up. Since coal conversion requires coal preheating to some extent, all these schemes begin with a coal-preparation step in a pressurized and heated reactor vessel where, in most cases, some additive or catalyst is usually injected. Extracting hydrogenated fuels from coal is not really a new science. Many people still recall the old "coal oil" that fired the lamps of stoves of rural America until the 1920's; the coal oil was produced by a basic Fischer- Tropsch method which has since been further developed to synthesize liquid fuels in the form of 86 to 90-octane gasoline and diesel fuel.

Jan 9, 1974

By AIME AIME

THOUGH the dust-control systems in the crushing plants and other buildings at Morenci do not differ materially from similar installations in other large copper reduction works, it is probable that in few other plants has as much attention been paid to the dust problem. Possibly the most striking feature of the Morenci installation is the manner in which the necessary equipment has been built into the various structures, and the absence of unsightly pipes, ducts, and fan houses. That this result has been attained is due, in no small part, to the basic conception that the control of the dust in a milling plant should be an essential part of the process itself and not something to be tacked on later after the plant is in operation. The control systems were designed and developed along with the general plant construction program and when the first car of ore was dumped into the crusher the dust-control equipment was ready.

Jan 1, 1942

By John Randall

It is a fair assumption that the main purpose of any diagram is to present facts to the eye in more convenient form than they could be tabulated in figures, and this implies that a screen diagram should set forth in a convenient and familiar form certain facts as to the character of the material screened regardless of the screen standards used, and it seems particularly desirable on account of the well-known differences in the size of openings of different laboratory screens having the same nominal mesh. In making screen-sizing tests it has been customary first to consider the largest size, going progressively to the smallest, and this seems to have led to the practice of placing the smallest size .at the right-hand side of the diagram and measuring toward the left. This is not altogether convenient and might be changed to advantage, but for illustration I have preserved that feature and present the method just as I have used it for over 2 years. Direct plotting in which the intervals on the diagram are proportional to the sizes of the openings, or to the arithmetical difference between them, seems at first sight more natural and is extremely useful for certain purposes, but it makes the diagram very crowded in the smaller screen sizes while the larger ones occupy unnecessary space, making it less convenient for most purposes, and for that reason the method here discussed is the well-known one based on the ratio between openings, and is plotted in logarithms instead of the direct values of the screen opening. Metric coordinate paper is convenient, although not necessary; it is recommended, as the use of the metric scale gives a diagram of convenient size, but any scale of equal parts may be used. In order to make any screen diagram translatable in terms of any standard screen size, it is necessary to have noted on the size scale of the diagram all points corresponding to the openings of the various screens in question, instead of a single series of points as with a single screen. In drawing the diagram assume 0.001 in. (corresponding approximately to 0.025 mm.) to be the smallest size to be considered and fix this as the zero point at the lower right-hand corner of the diagram. This value is selected because the values are to be plotted in logarithms, and the logarithm of 1 is zero. Then lay off to the left for the position of each screen

Jan 1, 1918

J. S. Unger,* Pittsburgh, Pa. (written discussion?).-I heartily agree with the author's suggestion, near the close of the paper, that greater uniformity in the making and use of brick is desirable. The effect of the manner of laying the brick, the mortar or cement used, the necessity of standardizing the shapes, the elimination of irregular or poorly designed brick, and the necessity for uniform operating conditions were pointed out by me some years ago. Many factors influence the quality of firebricks. The following figures obtained from bricks during their making or after completion show the need for greater uniformity in their quality. These results were obtained from regular commercial bricks, shipped to the consumer. In many cases the samples were from the same car load.

Jan 11, 1919

By L. A. Wilson, N. H. Harrison, R. R. Clay, R. L. Reed. D. W. Reed

Experiments have been performed in a linear near-adiabatic system for the purpose of extending data on reverse and forward combustion from atmospheric pressure to 1,000 psig. Results obtained from reverse combustion appear to conform qualitatively with the existing description of the process when reaction kinetics are suitably modified to account for the increase in pressure, i.e., increasing tbe pressure decreases the peak temperature and increases the combustion zone velocity. Forward combustion appears to be a fuel dominated process wherein peak temperature and combustion zone velocity are not very sensitive to changes in pressure. The moderate effects of pressure that do exist at low flux virtually disappear at high flux providing all oxygen is consumed. With this provision. increasing the pressure decreases the frontal velocity and increases the peak temperature. Results me shown graphicaIIy which demonstrate the effects of presswe on peak temperature, rate of advance, oil recovery, air/oil ratio, carbon oxides produced and temperature distributions. INTRODUCTION Numerous field tests of oil recovery using the technique of underground combustion are now in progress. Operating pressures used are always substantially in excess of atmospheric pressure. Nevertheless, the literature contains no laboratory data pertaining to the effects of pressure except for those of Martin, Alexander and Dew.1 Unfortunately, these data appear to reflect heat losses which may have obscured some of the effects of increased pressure. The underground combustion processes are exceedingly complex, and general concepts relating to them have necessarily been described in relatively simple terms. Particularly with regard to forward combustion, the interaction between multiphase fluid flow, heat transport and various rate mechanisms is so involved that to date a rigorous treatment is not available. In this paper a linear near-adiabatic system is described which was found capable of operating at pressures up to 1,000 psig and temperatures of at least 1,100 F. Using this equipment, experiments on both forward and reverse combustion were accomplished at elevated pressures and the data presented as a function of air flux or temperature. It will be assumed that the reader is familiar with the papers of Wilson, Wygal, Reed, Gergins and Henderson on forward combustion and that of Reed, Reed and Tracht3 on reverse combustion, so that it is not necessary to repeat the details of the two processes. EQUIPMENT AND PROCEDURE It was decided to study the effects of pressure over the interval 0-1,000 psig using a near-adiabatic system. Since satisfactory operation of such a system requires very thin tubing walls, it proved necessary to insert the entire combustion tube and heater assembly into a high pressure jacket in such a way that the internal tube pressure could be counterbalanced by pressurizing the annulus. This meant that the numerous heater and thermocouple wires had to pass through gas-tight seals that required considerable effort to maintain effective. An unexpected difficulty arose in connection with the nature of the annulus pressuring gas. It turned out that the composition of this gas critically affected the functioning of the adiabatic control system. Operation of the equipment at elevated pressures was not particularly difficult. The problems that did arise were a direct consequence of the large numbers of connections and seals involved. EQUIPMENT The equipment consisted of the combustion tube which fitted within the pressure jacket. This jacket was in turn mounted on a wheeled carriage which facilitated movement and provided for rotation of the

(Members are urged to send in for this column any notes of interest concerning themselves or their fellow-members.) The following members have registered recently at the Headquarters of the Institute Seeley W. Mudd, Los Angeles, Cal. Charles Janin, San Francisco, Cal. Edgar Rickard, London, England. Donnel F. Hewett, Washington, D. C. L. Maurice Cockerell, Chihuahua, Mexico.

Jan 4, 1913