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By John B. Pearse

The works heretofore used in carrying out the Bessemer process have been constructed substantially as follows: The whole works or plant has been divided into three parts. 1. The division in which the metals for conversion are melted. 2. The division in which the metals are converted into steel and cast into ingots, or the converting department. 3. The engine and boiler department which supplies the hydraulic power required to move the machinery, and which furnishes the blast used for converting the crude metal into steel.

This symposium is based on material presented at the AIME Annual Meeting in New York, February 1958. Co-Chairmen of the panel discussion were Truman H. Kuhn, Colorado School of Mines, and J. E. Monroe, Freeport Sulphur Co. Panel members are listed above. In opening the meeting Chairman Monroe pointed out that both industry and education have their special problems and that the purpose of this and similar discussion groups is to bring together members from both industry and education in order to help solve their problems.

Jan 6, 1958

By E. J. Wasp, T. C. Aude, F. B. Raymer

The following paper deals with technical aspects of terminal facilities for western coal pipelines. The information is taken from the Ohio and Black Mesa pipelines and the proposed one in Wyoming. This paper first discusses the feed terminal, the product that it must produce, and the reasons for coal cleaning. Then in the delivery terminal section, the various methods of dewatering the coal and some recent innovative ideas on bunkering the dewatered product and storing the dewatered coal in large outdoor piles are discussed.

Jan 1, 1979

By Earl H. Miller, Henry H. Bruhn

COMMERCIAL beds of sylvite ore were discovered by the Snowden & McSweeney Co. while drilling a wildcat oil well some 25 miles northeast of Carlsbad, N. NI., in 1925. After a preliminary core drilling program the U. S. Potash Co. sank a 1060-ft shaft within 4 miles of the original discovery. This shaft was in an isolated location in a sand desert area with only the roughest of dirt roads connecting it with the neigh- boring town of Carlsbad some 21 ½ miles west.

Jan 6, 1954

By W. H. Adams

Among the engineering plants with new features and deserving details which are constantly being brought to the working stage in the Southern States by the generous expenditure of capital, none can exceed in interest, whether to the public or the profession, the incline-railway built from base to summit of Lookout Mountain, near Chattanooga, Tennessee. Much geological and historical interest centers in this section of the middle mountain-country. Of its geology, the Transactions of the Institute contain many particulars. Of its history, the most

Jan 1, 1888

By A. Blake Caldwell

The Anaconda Company, an organization of mining people, enters a new world of copper production as it brings on stream its recently constructed Twin Buttes operation some 25 miles south of Tucson, Ariz. Twin Buttes comprises the largest earth-moving task performed in the history of mining. Some people liken this job to moving enough earth and rock to complete the famed Aswan High Dam in Egypt. In all, some 236 million tons of overburden and rock were removed from over the ore deposit.

Jan 1, 1970

By R. H. Pemberton

The principle of airborne electromagnetic prospecting is well-known. The basic geophysical texts in most cases discuss the main elements involved in electromagnetic prospecting. However, there is certainly little information available to the public concerning the present types of airborne electromagnetic systems being flown today by both contracting companies and some of the mining companies which have their own instruments. This is unfortunate since it is difficult for those people not conducting such operations to understand thoroughly the large variation in the electromagnetic instruments available.

Jan 1, 1961

By Edmund Davenport

Tier; production of thorium of high purity by the Ca-CaCl2 reduction has been described by Marden and Rentschler,1 who also reported some of the properties of the coherent, ductile metal obtained from this pure thorium powder. The present paper describes the properties of thorium produced by the Ca-CaCl2 process modified in some details to meet commercial conditions. The principal effect of these changes in process has been an unavoidable increase in the oxide content of the thorium.

Jan 1, 1929

By J. Randel Hill

The 64th Texas Legislature passed the "Texas Surface Mining and Reclamation Act," Chapter 131, Texas Natural Resources Code (subsequently referred to as "the Act"), at a point in time when little surface mining had taken place within the state. Thus, enactment of regulatory control governing mining operations in our state has, for the most part, preceded widespread, intensive mining activity. I should point out that the statute applies only to the extraction of coal, lignite, uranium and uranium ore. A recent opinion rendered by the Attorney General's office has stated that extraction of the named elements, when it occurs incidental to the extraction of other materials, e.g., clay, is not not an activity subject to the Act. An important theme of the Act, frequently overlooked in other environmentally oriented legislation, is recognition of the Act's affect on the mining industry. The Act states that "the extraction of minerals by surface mining operations is a basic and essential activity making an important contribution to the economic well-being of the state and nation" and, in reference to reclamation being accomplished contemporaneously with mining, provides a recognition that "the extraction of minerals by responsible mining operations is an essential and beneficial economic activity." This legislative recognition is, of course balanced against the need for proper mined land reclamation, the rights of surface owners, the need to guard against unreasonable degradation to land and water resources and numerous other actions or events that the Legislature wanted protected. Another rather pervasive general theme that is established in the Act is the concept that the agency is entitled to obtain whatever information, or take whatever action, that appears reasonably necessary to effectuate the purposes of the Act. This concept, coupled with the detailed requirements placed on mining operations in the portions of the Act dealing with Permit Applications, Reclamation Plan and Reclamation Standards, easily insures that surface mining activities can and will be regulated to the extent necessary. Section 131.102(b)(2) is probably the most relevant provision in the Act which deals with the preclusion of mined lands becoming waste lands. This portion of the Act states that the surface mining operator shall: ". . . restore the land affected to the same or a substantially beneficial condition. ." In this language the Legislature had made it abundantly clear that the abandoned or orphaned lands found in some of the Eastern states, will not be tolerated in this State, and provided the Commission with a degree of latitude to determine what condition would be appropriate in each individual mining situation. I bring this area of the Act to your attention because it is the area which has received the most inquiries and concern by operators, i.e. what does "substantially beneficial" constitute? The Commission's staff has spent a considerable amount of time wrestling with the statutory language "substantially beneficial" to determine the legislative intent and provide operators with guidance of what they can expect. In this regard, the most definitive criteria in our opinion lies in the Act's legislative hsitory. The Legislature had before it basically three reclamation standards namely: House Bill 656, considered to provide the most stringent reclamation standard and identical to Senate Bill 66; House Bill 1717 which was supported by industry spokesmen and was considered to contain the least stringent reclamation standard; and Senate Bill 55 which was adopted by the Legislature. During the Bill's initial hearing before the House Environmental Affairs Committee, the House sponsor of the Senate Bill 55, which was the Bill eventually adopted, made the following statement: (I am quoting verbatim from the Committee's transcript although substituting the speaker's reference to the authors names with the Bill's numbers.) "An example of the differing approaches of the four bills can be seen in the area of reclamation standards and this is critical. House Bill 656, talking about restoring the surface of the land, House Bill 656 has this statement: 'At least fully capable of supporting the use to which it was capable of supporting prior to any mining or any higher or better use.' In other words you have to restore it to the level it was prior to the mining. Senate Bill 55: 'Restore the land to the same or substantially beneficial use.' Substantially beneficial use. (Emphasis his) House Bill 1717 says: 'Restore insofar as practical to appropriate beneficial post-mining use.' So that House Bill 1717 said to, 'restore insofar as practical to appropriate beneficial use. I think that's too weak, whereas I think the House Bill 656 that would call you to restore it to at least the use it had prior to the mining may also be too tight the other way. I think the Senate Bill 55 approach is down the middle of the road which says that you do restore it to the 'same or substantially beneficial use,' is a proper way to go there." Therefore, the conclusion that we have drawn from the legislative history of the bill is that the extent of reclamation required by "substantially beneficial" may be something other than the use it was prior to

Jan 1, 1979

By C. S. Roberts

The creep mechanism and kinetics of fine-grained magnesium have been studied over the temperature range 200&apos; to 600°F. As a result of a photographic study of microstructural changes, transient and steady-state creep components have been correlated with slip, subgrain formation, and cyclic deformation at the grain boundaries. THE approach of this research has been the blend of a quantitative study of the creep strain of polycrystalline magnesium as a function of time, stress, and temperature with direct microstructural observations of the operative deformation processes. The validity of the conclusions is dependent on the condition that the microstructural changes seen on the polished surface qualitatively represent those occurring in the bulk of the metal. The work was intended as much to lay a background to a study of highly creep-resistant magnesium alloys as to provide a description of the behavior of the base metal itself. The spectroscopic analysis of the electrolytic magnesium used in this study is as follows: Al, 0.009 pct; Ca, <0.01; Cu, 0.0011; Fe, 0.021; Mn, 0.012; Ni, 0.0004; Pb, 0.0012; Si, <0.001; Sn, <0.001; and Zn, <0.01. The impurity level is approximately that of commercial magnesium alloys. The original ingot was melted under Dow type 310 flux and cast as a 3 in. diam billet. It was extruded into 1 in. flat stock under the conditions: billet preheat 800°F (1 hr), container and die temperature 800°F, speed 3 ft per min, and area reduction ratio 45:1. The extrusion process was chosen in preference to rolling and recrystallization because it allowed easier grain size control from specimen to specimen. The grains of the extruded metal were fairly equi-axial and uniform in the size range of 4 to 6 thousandths of an inch. The preferred orientation of basal planes about the transverse direction was determined by an X-ray diffraction surface reflection method. A beam of filtered copper radiation was directed at an angle of 17" to both the transverse direction and the surface yet perpendicular to the extrusion axis. Analysis of the (002) diffraction arcs in the resulting photographic patterns gave an approximate intensity distribution along the great circle which extends through the center of the basal plane pole figure and to the extrusion axis poles. Successive layers of metal were removed by macro-etching between exposures. The extruded texture is relatively sharp, but the most significant point is the position of the maximum basal plane pole density and its variation with depth below the surface. Fig. 1 shows that this maximum is rotated 15" from the normal at the surface toward the extrusion direction. Such an inclination has been reported for extruded 1 pct Mn and 8 pct A1-0.5 pct Zn alloys.&apos; The inclination decreases until the maximum splits at about 0.025 in. depth into two elements of equal and opposite rotations from the ideal. The double texture persists to as great a depth as was experimentally convenient to examine. It probably continues to the very center of the extrusion. There is no great change in the sharpness of the individual elements of the texture with depth. A plate of metal about 0.015 in. thick at the surface of the extruded stock was produced by etching. A transmission diffraction pattern was made for the purpose of determining any preferred orientation of a direction in the basal planes. Relatively uniform {loo) and {101) rings were produced. There is little tendency for parallelism of a given direction in the plane with the projection of the extrusion axis on it. The creep specimens were machined from 6¼ in. lengths of the extruded stock. Creep was measured on the reduced section, ½x1/8X2¼ in. long. This section was electropolished on one side for the studies of microstructural changes during creep. An orthophosphoric acid-ethyl alcohol electrolyte was used under the conditions recommended by Jacquet.² Hand polishing was used for previous mechanical preparation. Electropolishing was continued until all mechanical twins had been removed. The electro-polished surface was protected from oxidation during creep testing by a thin layer of silicone oil. All micrographs were taken at room temperature on conventional metallographic equipment and after removal of the oil film. The creep tests were performed with machines which have been described in detail by Moore and McDonald." Five testing temperatures, 200°, 300°, 400°, 500°, and 600° ±3°F were used. Difference in temperature between the two ends of the specimen reduced section was 2°F or less. The testing was done at constant load. Strain readings were taken as frequently as necessary to develop usable creep curves. Tensile Creep vs Time, Stress, and Temperature A definition of terms is necessary. Whenever successive sections of a creep strain-time curve show decreasing, constant, and increasing slope with time they will be termed primary, secondary, and tertiary

Jan 1, 1954

By J. J. Frawley, W. J. Childs, W. R. Maurer

The object of this investigation was to determine the growth habit of bismuth and bisrrtuth alloy dendrites as a function of supercooling. To do this, techniques were developed to increase the amount of supercooling in bismuth and bismuth alloys. For pure bismuth, the growth habit was dependent on the amount of supercooling. At low amounts of supercooling, about 10" C, prismatic dendrites were obtained. With increased supercooling, about 20 C, a hopper growth habit was observed. In many cases where hopper growth had occurred, the hopper dendrites were twinned during the growth process. This twinned surface enable prismatic dendrites to nucleate and grow by a twin plane mechanism. When the amount of supercooling was increased to about 25 °C, the growth habit was a triplanar growth. With still greater supercooling, about 3s°C, a branched growth habit occurred. The exposed planes on the prismatic, hopper,, triplane, and branched dendrites have been determined. The growth habit of the dendrites which grew along the crucible wall was found to have the (111) as the exposed plane, with <211> growth direction. It is apparent that dendritic growth of a metal is dependent on its purity and the solidification variables present. One of the solidification variables is the degree of supercooling. Supercooling, although often observed, has not been studied extensively until recent years. For dendritic growth to occur in a pure metal, the metal must be thermally supercooled. After the dendrites grow into the supercooled melt, the heat of solidification raises the temperature of the specimen to the melting point of the material and the remaining liquid will solidify at this temperature. Decanting is the removal of this remaining liquid before complete solidification. This removal of the remaining liquid after recalescence had occurred is a great aid in the study of dendritic growth. In this investigation, decanting was accomplished by a vacuum-decanting technique . Other investigators1-5 have studied the growth characteristics of various low-melting-temperature pure metals and alloys as a function of supercooling. However, large degrees of supercooling were not included. For their study of dendritic growth of lead, Weinberg and chalmersl employed a decanting technique which was achieved by pouring off the remaining liquid, exposing the solid/liquid interface. This method was employed later by Weinberg and Chalmers2 for the investigation of tin and zinc dendrites. The method for obtaining a solid/liquid interface was improved by Chalmers and Elbaum. They employed a triggered spring which was attached to the solidifying section of the specimen. Upon activation, the spring jerked the solid interface away from the liquid melt. In the study of growth from the supercooled state, a metal of low melting point which exhibited a high degree of supercooling was desired. Bismuth gave very consistent supercooling when a stannous chloride flux was employed. The maximum supercooling obtained was 91°C, with an average supercooling of between 65" and 75°C. The consistency of supercooling greater than 50°C was very high. The use of vacuum to aid in the rapid decanting of molten metal has proven to be very successful in this investigation. The vacuum gives a rapid decantation, usually leaving the solidified metal structure sharply defined. The purpose of this investigation was to study the effects of supercooling and the effects of alloy additions on the growth habit of bismuth dendrites. The structure of bismuth has been variously defined as face-centered rhombohedral, primitive rhombohedral, and hexagonal. However, bismuth has only one plane with threefold symmetry, the (111) plane, and the crystal-lographic structure is considered a 3kn structure. MATERIALS The bismuth which was employed in this investigation was obtained from the American Smelting and Refining Co. of South Plainfield, N. J. The accompanying spectrographic analysis data indicated the bismuth to be 99.999+ pct pure. The tin was obtained from the Vulcan Materials Co., Vulcan Detinning Division, Sewaren, N. J. It was classified as "extra pure". Nominal analysis was 99.999+pct. In order to prevent contamination of the bismuth melt from the atmosphere, an anhydrous stannous chloride (Fisher certified reagent grade) was added to each melt. The fluxing action obtained from the use of the chloride provided a large amount of supercooling in the specimen. APPARATUS A 30-kw, 10,000-cps motor-generator set, connected to a 6+-in.-diam air induction coil, was employed to melt and superheat the specimens. The temperatures were recorded by means of a chromel-alumel thermocouple and a potentiometric recorder. The thermocouples were 0.003 in. in diam, and were encapsulated with Pyrex glass to prevent the thermocouple from acting as a nucleating agent and also from contaminating the melt. Fig. 1 illustrates the vacuum-decanting apparatus when a liquid flux was employed. A standard 30-ml Pyrex beaker was placed on top of an asbestos insulating block. A 5-mm-ID Pyrex tube with aA-in. spacer tip attached to its end was used for the decanting tube. The spacer tip contributed significantly to a successful decanting operation. The tip located the opening of the decanting tube about -^ in. from the bottom of the

Jan 1, 1969

By James C. M. Li

The Petch relation between the flow stress and the gain size is derived from a consideration of gain boundary sources of dislocations without the need of dislocation Pile-ups. Three mechanisms for inierpreting the yield stress: the gain boundary strength, the unpinning of Frank-Read source near a grain boundary, and the generation of dislocations from the grain boundary are compared and the condition of their equivalence is shown. The effect of the average angle of misfit of pain boundaries is found to be sma11 and so is that of the average angle of misfit of subboundaries having impurities. The effect of impurities on the ledge density in the grain boundary is treated thermodynamically and a relatwn is proposed for the variation of Petch slope with impurity activity. The effect of temperature on the Petch slope is interpreted as due to the change of ledge structure in the grain boundary. It is indicated that the effect of annealing temperature may be more important than that of the test temperature and therefore should be studied. The effect of plastic strain on the Petch analysis is deduced from a work-hardening equation in which the generation of dislocations has first-order kinetics and the annihilation of dislocations has second-order kinetics. It is concluded that the Petch slope will decrease with plustic strain if the rate of annihilation of dislocations is sufficiently large. Critical experiments which may shed light on the mechanism for the Petch relation are suggested. THE relation between the yield or flow stress, 0, and the grain size, l, was first proposed by all&apos; and later studied more extensively by Petch and co-workers, who also proposed a similar relation for the fracture stress and deduced from these a grain-size effect of the ductile-brittle transition temperature. The microscopic mechanism used by all&apos; and petch2 involves a pile-up of dislocations of like sign generated from a Frank-Read source. The yielding or flow takes place when the pile-up exerts sufficient stress at the grain boundary so that the plastic deformation can propagate from one grain to another. If the average strength of the grain boundary is ai and the average length of the pileup is lp, the Petch slope, k, is given by" where p is the shear modulus, b the Burgers vector, and v the Poisson ratio. This slope will be independent of the grain size if l/lp is a constant. This is possible, since, if the Frank-Reed source is situated near the grain boundary, lp = 1, and if it is situated in the middle of the grain, Ip = 1/2. cottrell,12 also using the pile-up mechanism, proposed that the stress concentration at the grain boundary will initiate Frank-Read sources near the grain boundary and in this manner a Lüders band can propagate from one grain to another. Assuming that the average distance between the Frank-Read sources and the grain boundary is 1, and the unpinning stress of the Frank-Read sources is op, Cottrell obtained the following Petch slope: This slope will be independent of the grain size if ls is independent of the same, which is not as obvious as the condition, Ip = I for Eq. [2]. In addition to this assumption, the direct relation between the Petch slope k and the unpinning stress, up, was recently questioned by Johnsonon grounds that it is inconsistent with the following observations: the independence of k with temperature and strain rate, and the small k in columbium, which, like iron, has a sharp yield point. As pointed out by ohnson," the most important objection both to the Hall-Petch mechanism, in which the strength of the grain boundary plays the role in yielding, and to the Cottrell mechanism, in which the unpinning of Frank-Read sources plays the role in yielding, is the lack of direct observation of the pile-ups. The dislocation structure in deformed iron has been examined recently in the electron microsope.&apos;-&apos; Dislocations appear to be generated from grain boundaries or other interfaces; they form clusters and tangles within the grain at very early stages of deformation, even in the Lüders band, if the deformation is slow or at normal and elevated temperatures. Although it is still too early to interpret bulk properties from thin-film observations, it does seem worthwhile to look for a mechanism for the Petch relation which does not require dislocation pileup. SUBBOUNDARY SOURCES In order to show that a consideration of grain boundary sources can lead to the same Petch relation as does the consideration of the strength of the grain boundary, we shall first discuss the case of a simple tilt boundary whose elastic properties have been studied in detail.17 The strength of a partially

Jan 1, 1963

By Niels Hansen

The substructure formed by drawing at room temperature in aluminum (99.5 and 99.998 pct purity) and in recrystallized aluminum aluminum-oxide products containing from 0.2 to 4.7 wt pct of aluminum -oxide was examined by transmission electron microscopy, and the flow stress of the drawn materials was measured by tensile testing at room temperature. A sub-grain structure was present after a reduction in area by drawing of 10 to 20 pct, and the subgrain size was observed to decrease with increasing deformation. The tensile data show that the increase in flow stress (0.2 pct offset) by drawing from 10 to 95 pct depends on the reduction in area, not on the composition of the materials. Dispersion strengthening and subgrain bowzdary strengtlzening contribute to the flow stress, and these strengthening processes have been found to be linearly additive. The flow stress (0) can be related to the subgrain size &) by the Petclz relation = uo + k . t, where go is dependent on the composition of the products and k is approximately the same far all materials. THE microstructure of dispersion-strengthened aluminum aluminum-oxide products consists of small oxide plates distributed in an aluminum matrix. The matrix structure depends on the manufacturing history, and in hot-worked as well as cold-worked products the matrix is divided by subgrain (or dislocation) boundaries. For hot-extruded products it has been shown1 that dispersion strengthening and subgrain boundary strengthening are linearly additive, and the flow stress (0.2 pct offset.) at room temperature has been related to the subgrain size (ts) by a Petch equation,2,3 s = so + k . ts-1/2, where s0, increases with increasing oxide content. For cold-worked products containing subgrains no systematic work has been reported, and it was the aim of the present study to examine the microstructure and the relationship between the flow stress and the subgrain size for such products. The behavior of&apos; aluminum aluminum-oxide products depends on the purity of the aluminum matrix, and aluminum of the matrix purity (99.5 pct) was included in the investigation. The literature contains few data about the behavior of this impure aluminum, and aluminum of a higher purity (99.998 pct) was therefore also examined. As regards the relationship between the flow stress and the subgrain size in cold-worked dispersion-strengthened products, no systematic work has been reported. For aged cold-worked structures containing fine precipitates (Fe-Mo carbide) a Petch relation has been found,4 and it has been shown that the k value NlELS HANSEN is Head, Metallurgy Department, Danish Atomic Energy Commission, Research Establishment Riso, Denmark. Manuscriot submitted January 9, 1969. IMD is approximately the same as in iron, whereas the s0 value is higher owing to the presence of the precipi-tates. Investigations of metals such as tungsten,&apos; ferrous metals,4,6 and molybdenum7 cold drawn or swaged at room temperature have shown that the flow stress can be related to the subgrain size by a Petch relation when ts is taken as the subgrain size perpendicular to the direction of deformation. For aluminum no work has been reported on the relationship between the flow stress and the subgrain size after deformation at room temperature, whereas for aluminum tensile strained at different temperatures in the range -183" to 375°C a Petch relation has been found by taking ts equal to the subgrain size.&apos; In the present study two aluminum materials (99.998 and 99.5 pct) and three aluminum aluminum-oxide products (containing 0.2, 1.0, and 4.7 wt pct oxide) were drawn at room temperature to reductions in area from about 10 to about 95 pct. The structures were studied by transmission electron microscopy, and the flow stress (0.2 pct offset) was measured at room temperature. EXPERIMENTAL Materials. The materials are given in Table I together with the chemical analysis. The three aluminum aluminum-oxide products were manufactured from aluminum powder that had been compacted and Table I. Chemical Analysis of Materials Al203 Fe SI Material wt pct wt pct wt pct 99.998 pct* - 0.0004 0.0012 Aluminum 99.5 pctt - 0.36 0.16 Aluminum AlMD13† 0.2 0.16 0.12 Aluminum- -Oxide AlMD105† 1.0 0.26 0.18 Products SAPISML960s† 4.7 0.22 0.19 *Other impurities: O.0004 pct max each of Cu and Zn (supplier&apos;s analysis). †Other impurities: 0.03 pct max Cu. 0.02 pct max each of Mn, Mg, Zn, Ti. Table 11. Mean Diameter of Aluminum-Oxide Particles in Extruded and in Cold--Drawn Aluminum Aluminum-Oxide Products Mean Diam. of A1203-Plates* Material State A AlMD105 Extruded 540 Cold Drawn 97 pct 510 SAP ISML 960 Extruded 770 Cold Drawn 95 pct 820 *The standard deviation of the mean is approx. 5 ±pct.

Jan 1, 1970

By J. Weijdema, D. N. Dietz

In the conventional underground combustion process (dry combustion) much heat is left behind in the swept formation and goes to rva.rte. Econonmy can be improved by heat recuperation through water injection. This is most advantageous if done at the earliest opportunity before much heat is dissiputed to cap and base rock. Water injected simultaneously with the air will flash to superheated steam, which passes through the combustion front together with the nitrogen from the air. A condensation front traveling up to three times as fast as the combustion front drives out the oil. In this type of wet combustion, the water evaporates before it reaches the combustion zone. The evaporation front travels more slowly than the combustion zone. If so much water is injected that the evaporation front overrun the combustion front, combustion in that spot will be quenched and some unburned fuel will be left behind. Air reacts with the oil farther down-stream where steam temperatures occur; at steam temperature, the air reacts rapidly with the oil. Velocity of the combustion front is increased thereby and is governed essentially by the water-injection rate. In the extreme case of high water-injection rate, a short heat wave of constant length is driven through the formation by water injection. Once this wave has been established, no more heat need be generated than that required to make up the heat losses from the short heat wave; a relatively low rate of air injection will suffice. The feasibility of partially quenched combustion has been confirmed in tube experiments. A heat wave at steam temperature is observed. Chemical analyses of flue gas indicate preferential burning of hydrogen while a carbonaceous residue is left in the formation. Introduction A disadvantage of so-called dry in situ combustion is that air-compression costs are rather high. An air consumption of about 400 std cu m/cu m (400 scf/cu ft) of formation swept is an accepted figure. This high consumption is mostly wasted since much heat is left behind in the depleted oil sand. Methods were investigated for recuperating as much as possible of the heat left behind. This paper deals only with basic principles and is confined mainly to one-dimen- sional flow without lateral heat losses; experiments were conducted in relatively narrow, well insulated tubes. If some water is injected with the air, it will turn to superheated steam in an evaporation front, which should travel behind the combustion front. The steam having passed the combustion front causes a steam drive by a condensation front that can travel faster than the combustion front. The latter needs to travel only part of the distance covered by the oil-displacing condensation front, and thus consumes less air. The water-air ratio would seem limited to that at which cold water overruns the combustion. This limitation was deliberately exceeded considerably in theory and experiments. It was found that combustion is then indeed quenched, but only locally. Farther downstream, the oxygen finds residual oil at steam temperature, which is suficiently high to ensure rapid oxidation. Thus, the combustion front uses only part of the available fuel because it is chased through the formation faster than its normal velocity. No heat is left behind. This new process is called "partially quenched combustion". At the upper limit of the water-air ratio, a small heat slug is moved through the formation by the flow of water and steam. Only a small flow of air is needed since it has only to generate sufficient heat to make up for the lateral heat losses of the short heat slug. Theory Although many factors complicate underground combustion, the processes will be presented in their simplest form. For this reason, one-dimensional flow without lateral heat losses is assumed. Heat conduction in the direction of flow also is disregarded. Under these conditions, dry combustion causes very high temperatures. The heat-carrying capacity of the gas stream is small. Heat generated by oxidation of a residual oil saturation is retained in the sand. The available fuel determines the air requirement and the temperature obtained. Accepting the often-mentioned air consumption of 400 std cu m/cu m (400 scf/cu ft) formation, we calculate a temperature of the swept sand of 1,200C (2,192F) (Fig, I). If water is injected at a modest rate with the air, it will flash to superheated steam upon contact with the heated sand. One cu m (35.31 cu ft) of hot formation will evaporate about 0.5 cu m (17.66 cu ft) of water, and thereafter will accommodate (at an estimated 0.80 saturation and an assumed 0.40 porosity) another 0.3 cu m (10.59 cu ft) of water in cold condition. As long as less than 0.5 + 0.3 = 0.8 cu m (28.25 cu ft) of water is injected for every 400 std cu m (14,125 scf) of air (water-

Jan 1, 1969

By F. S. Young, K. E. Gray

Drilling tests with a 11/4-in. diameter roller bit were performed on Berea and Bandera sandstones and Leuders limestone using water and two conventional drilling muds as circulating fluids to evaluate the influence of dynamic filtration on penetration rate. The muds possessed widely differing API fluid-loss properties. Mud filtrate was constrained to flow beneath the bit; no filtrate flowed radially through the borehole wall. Rock pore pressure at three different locations ahead of the bit, cumulative filtrate volume, borehole pressure and bit location were monitored during drilling. The rock samples, cored in three orientations with respect to bedding planes, possessed a wide range of liquid permeabilities. and were drilled at borehole-to-formation pressure differentials of 0, 250, 500 and 1,000 psig. The effect on penetration rate of API fluid loss, borehole pressure and rock permeability was studied. Rock permeability damage and pore pressure gradients beneath the bit were evaluated. The importance of borehole-to-formation pressure differential was illustrated for each drilling fluid and rock permeability combination. Penetration rates decreased with increased borehole pressure and reduced fluid loss. The observed penetration rate reduction due to changing fluid Ioss was attributed to decreased filtrate flow and improved mud cake plastering hy the low fluid-loss mud. The reduction in filtrate flow could not be related to spurt-loss phenomena. Rock permeability influences penetration rate through particle invasion ahead of the hit, which damage leads to high pressure gradients. Penetration rate variance with sample orientation was evident for water-drZled samples but less obvious for mud-drilled rocks. Permeability damage beneath the bit ranged from 1 to 3 cm. Maximum damage occurred in the first 0.1 cm. Pressure gradients varied with API fluid 10.s.s and could be correlated with penetration rate. The pressure gradient was found to influence penetration rare in rocks of all permeabilities tested. INTRODUCTION Early microbit and small-scale drilling experiments proved to be invaluable contributions to understanding the mechanics of drilling at depth. For example, the effect of borehole-to-pore pressure differential on drilling rate was demonstrated conclusively by Murray and Cunningham&apos;, Eckel&apos; and others .&apos; However, the effects of various drilling fluid properties on drilling rate, particularly filtration, have not been studied extensively on a laboratory basis. Microbit correlations of penetration rate with different viscosity and API fluid-loss muds led EckelV o conclude that viscosity and density. more than API fluid loss, were the most important fluid properties in controlling drill bit penetration rates. Ferguson and Klotz6 studied filtration beneath the bit and stated that the maximum amount of filtrate which could conceivably flow beneath a drilling bit could be described by a potential function associated with flow from a moving disc source. and be characterized by a depth-of-filtrate invasion. Invasion depth is a function of penetration rate, formation porosity and permeability, flooding efficiency, pressure difference between borehole and formation and borehole radius, assuming that no filtrate flows through the borehole walls. Electric analog and experimental measurements were obtained, assuming no plugging of the formation pores. Theoretically, filtrate invasion was predicted to extend from 1- to 15-hole radii beneath the cutting surface; experimental results indicated that the extent of invasion was only Y2 in. Comparing these data with results of core-plugging experiments by Norwak and Krueger&apos; led Ferguson and Klotz to state that the drilling operation apparently contributes to higher filtration rates than are observed in nondrilling core filtration tests in which the core face is jetted and scraped. Glenn and Slusser: in describing a linear filtering system in which a rotating bit continuously scraped mud cake from the surface but did not penetrate Alundum cores, stated that mud-solids invasion and permeability damage of the cores were most severe in the first 2 to 3 cm. The filtrate flow rate through the core was found to stabilize after sufficient time had elapsed for the formation of an internal mud cake whose effective permeability was estimated to be 50 to 300 times as high as that of bulk filter cake. Krueger and Vogel reported core permeability damage depths up to 12 in. during a 5-day exposure period in which filter cake buildup was prevented. Havenaar pointed out that the discrepancy between reported and calculated values of filtrate volume obtained in the experiments of Ferguson and Klotz was due, among other things, to failure of the reported API fluid loss to truly represent filtration beneath the bit. Williams," Pro-koplz and others"" have shown that dynamic filtration tests (where a flow of fluid parallel to the filter surface continually erodes the deposited filter cake until a dynamic equilibrium between wall-shearing forces and normally directed compaction forces is attained) yield higher filtration rates than do static tests. Cunningham and Goinss reported results of drilling tests in impermeable shales. They found that by reducing

By John P. Cosgro

THE increasing use of internal furnace-boilers for mining power-plants (doubtless due to the facility with which they may be installed by reason of their portability; the fact that they require no masonry setting, cast-iron fronts, buck-stays, etc., and practically no foundation; and the successful maintenance of their claim to equal and even superior economy, as compared with boilers of other types) warrants this description of a method of remedying an injury which may occur, to such a furnace, even though it satisfies the requirements of the formula adopted by the U. S. Board of Supervising Inspectors of Steam Vessels.2 I refer to the sagging and deformation which may result from overloading the boilers for a considerable period-say, several days. This is sometimes unavoidable under the exacting conditions of continuous day-and-night service, and (in spite of all rules and precautions, the occasional careless or unskillful work of attendants. Such a trouble is by no means unknown on shipboard, where this type of boiler is so largely employed. In the case here described, two Morrison suspension-furnaces, of half-inch steel, 14 ft. long and 45 in. in mean diameter, with ? dry-back ? boilers, were necessarily operated somewhat beyond their rated -normal capacity for several months, while a third similar unit was -in process of installation, and during this period, though the boilers were kept perfectly clean, heat seems &apos;to have been generated slightly faster than it was absorbed by, the water in the boilers. The corrugations of this.

Mar 1, 1905

By A. Lee Barrett

AN accelerated trend toward mechanical mining was noted in 1940, calling for improvements in and better performance of transportation, hoisting, and ventilating equipment. One of the most interesting experi¬ments in transportation is the track shuttle-car operation first put into use by the Princeton Mining Co. in Indiana and later at the Montour 4 mine of the Pittsburgh Coal Co. This system is based on the use of 10-ton drop-bottom mine cars operating on track and han¬dled by an ordinary gathering loco¬motive. These mine cars are loaded and taken in trips of two to a central dumping station which serves four or less loading machines. The dumping station consists of two standard chain-and-flight room conveyors, approximately 50 ft. long placed side by side approximately 4 ft. below the track from which the drop-bottom cars are dumped. These conveyors are operated at low speed and discharge into two similar elevating conveyors which operate at a higher speed and convey the coal to a trip of standard mine cars. A dumping station is usually located so that approximately 500,000 tons of coal may be handled through it before a move is required. This plan appears to have considerable possibilities for the mine equipped with small mine cars and standard locomotives since the advantages of large mine cars can be secured at a fraction of the cost required to install such cars throughout the mine. It appears logical that the future will see a much wider use of this modification in transportation.

Jan 1, 1941

By AIME AIME

CHARLES WASHINGTON MERRILL, the second to be honored by the award of the James Douglas gold medal, throughout his entire professional career has been identified with the cyanide method of extracting gold from ore. To his efforts this branch of the metallurgical industry owes a large measure of its success in continuing to treat some gold ores profitably, in spite of economic adversities. Mr. Merrill was born at Concord, N. H., Dec. 21, 1869, and received the degree of B. S. from the School of Mines at the University of California in 1891. Among his first professional connections was the Standard Mining Co., at Bodie, Cal., followed by a short engagement at Harqua Hala, Ariz. From 1895 to 1899 he was connected with the Montana Mining Co., at Marysvale, Mont., and then followed his nine years of fruitful association with the Homestake Mining Co. In 1909, the Merrill Co. was formed, to exploit more than a score of patents granted to Mr. Merrill, covering various phases of the cyanide process and numerous pieces of equipment for its operation; among the most noteworthy of these innovations were the Merrill filter-press, and the use of zinc dust as a precipitant. The Merrill Co. has a long record of successful accomplishments in its chosen field, to mention only the plants at the Dome mines of Ontario and at the Sta. Gertrudis mines of Mexico as among the more recent. Mr. Merrill is president also of the Western Ore Purchasing Co.; and a director in two gold dredging companies of California.

Jan 1, 1924

By George J. Young

Discussion of the paper of George J. Young, presented at the San Francisco meeting, October, 1911, and published in Bulletin No. 59, November, 1911, pp. 839 to 872. ASKIN M. NlCHOLAS, Melbourne, Australia (communication to the Secretary) : * Professor Young deals with quite a variety of machines and methods, but, strangely enough, makes no mention of the work done by me, although he concludes with the remark that the " thin-cake continuous filters are a decided improvement over the thick-cake filters." As those interested in slime-treatment may consider that I did nothing more than to patent a process, I submit Fig. 1, showing the working-drawings of a machine, made, tested, and proved to work satisfactorily by me early in 1905. This time is prior to any work done in slime-filtration with rotating filters by E. L. Oliver or others. I maintain that a number of appliances now in use for slime-filtration infringe my patents. And after most exhaustive inquiry, I know of no machine or process, prior to my description in 1899,1 that embodied getting rid of the residues by holding them on the cloth with the vacuum, and then discharging them with back-pressure, so as to form a cycle of the operation, the result being continuous treatment. I therefore think that any paper dealing exhaustively with this subject is not complete without a reference to the work that I have done. * Received Mar. 11, 1912. 1 U. S. Patent No. 619,211, Feb. 7, 1899.

Aug 1, 1912

By Roy Thomas

SOON after the Waelz plant for the fire concentration of low-grade zinc ores was put into operation in the early part of 1929 at Katowice, it was found that the conveyor equipment for transporting the hot residue from the furnace dust chambers was inadequate. Hand tram-ming with water cooling was used for a time, but that method was injurious to the workmen as well as costly. The problem was to find some practical mechanical means of conveying flue dust at temperatures of from 450° to 600° C. as it was drawn from the dust chambers. After considerable preliminary investigation it was decided to install pneu-matic equipment for conveying the hot materials to a central mixing plant, where it would be mixed with slime and from which it would be returned to the furnace feed hoppers. The first pneumatic equipment was installed in 1930, and has been in successful operation since that time. The pneumatic method of transportation has shown a considerable saving in operating costs over the former methods of dust handling and a decided improvement in working and hygienic conditions at the plant, through the elimination of the dust hazard. Additional pneumatic equipment was installed in 1933 for conveying the furnace fume from the baghouses to the roaster plant. At the same time pick-up lines were provided for collecting the cleanings from the vertical and horizontal cooling pipes that are between the furnace dust chambers and the baghouses. The latter installation has practically eliminated a dusty and costly hand-tramming operation.

Jan 1, 1939