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By J. Marshall Downey

The most fortunately situated U. S. potash producer-whether in New Mexico, California, or Utah--once simply took from the ground a mixture of sodium chloride and potassium chloride, crushed it to a maximum of 10 mesh, and separated the two salts by physical methods. He piled the sodium chloride on the desert and sold the potassium chloride to fertilizer mixing companies. Seven companies in the Carlsbad basin of New Mexico now use at least three basic processes for making the separation and at least three more processes have been or are under investigation. In addition, two companies outside the basin use two methods for taking KC1 from natural brines

Jan 12, 1958

By K. B. Nowels

Data pertaining to pipe line flow for both oil and gas in horizontal or nearly horizontal pipe lines are both extensive and accurate. However, the pipe formulas used to determine pressure drop for flowing fluids (liquids and gases) under conditions of horizontal flow are not generally applicable to flowing oil and/or gas wells. Except for some data developed in small laboratory set-ups, little or no information was available concerning flow of oil and gas mixtures in vertical pipes, when, in 1928, the writer began the development of a method for computing pressure drops in the pipes of flowing oil wells, as outlined in this paper. In 1929, Urenl presented some findings based on laboratory experiments in which vertical flow of an extremely heavy crude oil was induced by means of air through a 2-in. pipe, 41 ft. long. The friction factors derived from the experiment, as well as values for pressure drop per 100 ft., are not believed satisfactory in their application to flow problems in the field. Versluys,2 also in 1929, presented a mathematical development of the theory of flowing oil wells, and in 1930, gave a companion paper3 setting forth some principles governing the choice of length and diameter of tubing in oil wells. Since the termination of the study presented in this paper, another valuable contribution pertaining to the problem of vertical flow was made by Moore and Wilde.4 Although there were writings dealing with the principles of the gas-lift, a search of the available literature indicated that specific information on vertical flow was lacking with the exception of the writings of Uren, Versluys, and Moore and Wilde, to which reference has been made.

Jan 1, 1932

By N Trabelsi, D Bakun-Mazor, Y Ben-Ari

As part of a comprehensive project to develop a remote sensing tool for evaluating the mechanical properties of rocks, one must obtain a rapid indication of these properties using conventional field methods. A common method for evaluating the mechanical properties of rocks in the field is to use a Schmidt hammer, a portable device that measures the rebound (R) of a spring-loaded mass impacting against the rock surface. Since the 1960s many studies have been made to find empirical correlations between the R value measured by the Schmidt hammer and mechanical and physical properties such as uniaxial compressive strength (UCS), elastic modulus, density, and porosity. Despite the existing correlations in the literature, this work is required to establish detailed empirical relationships for the carbonate rock units in Israel. To do so, 150 rock samples were collected from 38 different outcrops of carbonate rock units. In each outcrop, 20 impacts were made using a Schmidt hammer at different but adjacent points. The impacts were done horizontally perpendicular to the vertical rock walls. In the laboratory, we measured the density, effective porosity, water absorption, UCS, and elastic modulus. The rock samples we selected contained a wide range of UCS: from 7 to 270 MPa. Our empirical correlations indicate an exponential relationship between R and UCS and the elastic modulus, and linear relationships between R and density, porosity, and water absorbance. The most reliable index is the average of the five maximum impacts out of the 20 made in each rock outcrop. The correlation equations obtained from this work will make it possible to effectively evaluate the mechanical properties of the intact rock in the field, thereby aiding development of advanced tools for rock mass characterisation by means of remote sensing.

Nov 29, 2022

By Paul J. Fopiano

SOME relationships between the flow characteristics of iron single crystals of 99.9 pct purity and the behavior of imperfections have been investigated. X-ray rocking-curve measurements and etch-pit counts were made as a function of plastic strain, and compared to the stress-strain curve obtained on a modified Polyani tensile machine. Crystals grown from rolled strips of vacuum-melted iron by the strain-anneal method1 had a high preference for a (110) longitudinal direction and a (211) face normal. The tensile specimens were prepared from 2 by i by 0.040 in. single crystals having a gage area of 3 by \ in. Rocking-curve measurements were carried out with a highly perfect germanium monochromating crystal in which the dazz spacing was matched to that of the dZl1 in the ir0n.l Well-collimated CuKal radiation was used throughout. These procedures practically eliminated errors due to geometrical and wavelength resolution. Inasmuch as the rocking-curve half breadth may vary markedly from point to point in the specimen being irradiated, the crystals were strained in place by mounting a hydraulic loading device on the double-crystal spectrometer. The rocking curves were taken after each increment of strain in the unloaded condition, since no observable difference was found in the rocking-curves between the loaded and unloaded states. The rocking-curve half breadths of the as-grown specimens were in the range 90 to 120 sec of arc when the beam irradiated an area of about -£ by -& in. on the specimen. DeMarco and weiss3 have shown that, for a well-colli- mated X-ray beam, irradiating about 10"! sq in. of the very same material, half breadths within 10 pct of the Darwin natural half breadth were observed. Since the rocking-curve specimens were stressed by the load-unload technique, the strain achieved at any given stress depended on the time of holding because of low-temperature creep. Fig. 1 shows the rocking-curve half breadth (also area/peak height) as a function of plastic strain for a relatively short holding time (2 to 5 min) at each stress level. For strains less than 0.1 pct the rocking-curve breadth is essentially constant; it is only for larger strains that there occurs a significant increase in this breadth. Where the holding times at each stress level were longer (by well over an order of magnitude) there occurs a significant increase in the rocking-curve breadth only after plastic strains of the order of 0.6 pct had been introduced into the specimen. This observation is related to the time dependence of creep phenomena and emphasizes the difficulty in comparing data obtained by two such different straining methods. Etch-pit results were obtained using a 2 pct nital etch on specimens strained in the range of 0 to 1 pct. Prior to etching, all specimens were annealed for 3 hr at 150°C, the carbon content being sufficient to decorate the dislocations for strains of at least 1 p~t.~ The data points were all taken from parts of the same single crystal which had been strained with short holding times at stress in increments of strain of the order of tenths of 1 pct. The (211) plane is particularly difficult to etch-pit in vacuum-melted iron and therefore it is felt that these values are as much as an order of magnitude low. Fig. 2 shows the etch-pit density as a function of plastic strain. The smooth curve passing through the data points is not meant to infer a quantitative correlation with the rocking-curve data. What is of interest, however, is the change in etch-pit density in the region of 0.2 pct plastic strain. The first three increments in strain (points 2,3, and 4) did not produce a measurable change in the etch-pit density while subsequent increments did produce a measurable change. While the absolute values of these results do not appear to be cor-

Jan 1, 1967

By I KylmSkorpi, H Mansikkaviita

The traditional direct-heated drying process has been replaced by the steam drying process in non-ferrous metal smelters, where steam is available from waste heat boilers. Many recent projects have selected Kumera Steam Dryers in equipping a new production line or modifying an old production line. The industrial performance of the steam dryers has shown significant energy saving and emission reduction. The steam dryers have been operated at high availability and long maintenance interval. As the process principle of Kumera Steam Dryer is different from other equipment, the set-up for steam dryer plants is configured to fit the smelter site and operation conditions to achieve optimal performance. This article discusses the equipment involved in the steam drying process and their combination options.

Jan 1, 2008

By Balasubramani M., Ramana P. V., Bairagi K.

This paper is a case study of an earthen Cofferdam, constructed for a deep excavation at Intake location in river Aaundha, Maharashtra, India. A 12 m (39 ft) deep excavation was made to construct the Intake well. The natural soil profile at this location is clay followed by rock. An earthen Cofferdam of maximum height 7 m (23 ft) was made around the periphery of the excavation. Cofferdam embankment and excavation slopes were analyzed using the finite element software PLAXIS-2D. Clayey sand was proposed as filling material during design, but clayey soil was used for the embankment formation during execution. The embankment was built up to 5m height in July 2017 and completely submerged due to monsoon. In February 2018 embankment height raised to 7m (23 ft) by filling the soil over the existing submerged embankment. After a few days of completion of the Cofferdam construction, the inside slope of the embankment had started sliding due to continuous dewatering. The design and execution of deep excavation with earthen Cofferdam for waterfront structures are challenging. The selection of filling material for embankment formation and dewatering techniques plays a vital role in the safety and stability of the embankments. Although all the safety measures were taken during the design, execution challenges are unpredictable.

Nov 1, 2022

By R. N. Gow

Acidic treatment of enargite (Cu3AsS4) dissolves both arsenic and copper from the mineral and then attempts to separate them in the leach solution. The reactivity of enargite was examined in acidic solutions, over the pH range 1-7, to determine a potential range for co-dissolution.. Enargite mineral samples from Butte, MT and Quirivilca, Peru were used as working electrodes in a cyclic voltammetry corrosion cell setup, which were then cycled multiple times over -1000 to 1000 mV. Surface reactions and transitions were characterized using in-situ Raman spectroscopy, which were then compared to updated predominance diagrams for the copper-arsenic-sulfur system from a previous study done under alkaline conditions. The region of co-dissolution is limited to > 600 mV vs. SHE and pH < 1 under the proposed diagram.

Feb 23, 2014

By Tibor Stefansky, John E. Dorn

MOTT and Nabarro1-5 were first to illustrate the importance of the flexibility of dislocations in accounting for the strengthening that metals undergo due to the presence of internal-strain centers. Such strain-centers might arise from a number of causes such as radiation damage, the presence of semicoherent and coherent precipitates and clusters, as well as individually dispersed interstitial and misfit substitutional solute atoms. Each strain-center induces positive and negative shear stress fields on the slip planes of the surrounding alloy matrix. In order to effect plastic deformation, therefore, the alloy must be subjected to sufficiently high applied shear stresses to push dislocations past all such internal stress fields. If dislocations were inflexible and moved as rigid lines, they would be equally pushed and pulled by internal stress fields. At this extreme the strengthening would be vanishingly small. Dislocations, however, are not rigid; they are flexible and extensible. They wiggle between positive and negative strain-centers, thus increasing their line energy at the expense of their interaction energy with strain-centers. cottrel16 and Friedel7,8 have independently presented lucid reviews of the significance of the Mott-Nabarro dislocation-flexibility concept to the strain-center strengthening of alloys. Their analyses however were only semi-quantitative. There is evidence in the recent literature of renewed interest in a more rigorous analysis of flexibility. Thus, Gleiter9 and Gerald" have shown that the calculated strain-energy interaction between a dislocation and the stress fields of coherent precipitates can be seriously in error if the flexibility of the dislocation is not taken into account. This report will be concerned with a more detailed analysis of the problem based on the following approximations: 1) Although many types of strain-centers exist, the following analysis will be limited to the case of solute-atom strain-centers in fcc substitutional alloys. 2) To facilitate the analysis by avoiding statistical considerations, the strain-Centers are assumed to be in regular arrays on the slip plane. Although the quantitative results are somewhat dependent on the type of array that is assumed, the qualitative trends are similar for various arrays that were studied. 3) An adjustment of the results from those for square arrays to those for the more realistic case of a random distribution of strain-centers is accomplished by adopting the interesting statistical theory first introduced by Kochs,11,12 elaborated on by Dorn, Guyot, and stefansky,13 and analyzed by Foreman and Makin14 in their computerized experiments. 4) For simplicity the dislocation lines are taken to wiggle about their edge orientation and no correction is applied to their line energy for deviations from edge configurations or for the elastic interaction between segments of the now curved dislocation. It will be shown that for extremely low concentrations of atomic strain-centers the strengthening increases with the square root of their concentration. For slightly higher concentrations the strengthening rate becomes less rapid. At a critical concentration a maximum strength is obtained and a decrease in the strengthening takes place as the concentration of solute atoms is further increased. These trends are a direct consequence of dislocation flexibility. They arise from changes in the amplitude of the waviness of the dislocation line at the yield stress with solute atom concentration. Despite the simplifying assumptions that were made, the results agree qualitatively with appropriate experimental data. I) STRESS FIELDS ON SLIP PLANES Internal stresses are introduced in a lattice whenever a host atom of radius ro is replaced by another that has a different atomic radius. According to the classical theory of linear elasticity,15 the stress field about a solute atom at the origin of a spherical coordinate system is given by arr=-4G€(?_0)3 ffflfl ="W =2G€{t) f°rr^ro(l+e) UJ where G is the shear modulus of elasticity and Y, = ro(l + E) is the radius in situ, of the substituted atom. As shown by ~shelb~,&apos;~ this approximation assumes that the bulk modulus of elasticity of the substituted atom is identical with that of the host species. ~abarro&apos;~ suggested that the strain E can be deduced

Jan 1, 1970

By James L. Elder

Field-scale experiments were conducted at Gorgas, Ala., from 1951 to 1954. Three reaction paths were formed by electrolinking-carbonization, using electrode spacings of 150, 152, and 155 feet. The coal along these reaction paths was gasified, using air, oxygen, and steam separately or in various combinations. At the conclusion of operation, a drilling survey was conducted to determine the location and approximate area of the reaction zones. During the applications of the electrolinking-carbonization technique the maximum limitation on electrode spacing was not determined. Initial tests were conducted at 60-foot spacing. Successful path-preparation tests were made at 150-, 152-, and 155-foot spacings, and the indications were that much longer spacings were possible. The potential requirements appear to be constant, regardless of path length, while the gross power required probably will increase with path length. During the carbonization phase gas was produced that is similar in quality to coke-oven gas produced at low to intermediate temperatures.

Jan 1, 1957

By P. F. Sands, Michael Sokaski, M. R. Geer

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the advantage of using either a conventional sieve bend ahead of a vibrating screen or of attaching a sieve - bend screen surface onto a vibrating screen to serve as a scalping deck when dewatering or draining dense medium from fine coal . In dewatering , use of either the sieve bend or scalping deck increased the capacity of the vibrating screen tenfold and the recovery of coal finer than 0.5 mm threefold , with no sacrifice in the moisture content of the oversize product . In dense -medium drainage , either the sieve bend or the scalping deck reduced the amount of magnetite retained on the product of the vibrating screen , particularly when the medium was as dense as that characteristic of the underflows from dense - medium cyclones . The sieve bend was slightly superior to the scalping deck in dewatering , but the scalping deck was clearly superior in dense -medium drainage . Additional advantages of the scalping deck are lower cost and a substantial saving in headroom.

Jan 1, 1963

By Davood Moradkhani, Maryam Rasouli

"The present study reports solvent extraction and separation of zinc from concentrated nickel sulfate solution. In our previous study, Zn and Cd in cold filter cake (CFC, 45-55% Zn, 11-16% Cd, and 2.5-4% Ni) were extracted by alkaline leaching followed by electrowinning processes respectively. The strip solution from electrowinning process, was a pregnant liquor solution (PLS) containing 16.8 g/l Ni and 4.2 g/l Zn. In this work, PLS is subjected to the solvent extraction process for separation of traces of Zn from high grade nickel. The zinc free raffinate containing 16.6 g/l Ni sulfate solution will flow to nickel electrowinning plant for cathode production. Di-(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid (D2EHPA) is the organic phase used in this study. The effects of various parameters such as organic phase concentration (10- 40 % v/v), pH (1.5-3), and temperature (25 and 45°) are investigated. Zinc over nickel separation factor increases by increasing pH from1.5 to 3. The results show that 98.7% of Zn was loaded at25°C O/A ratio of 1, pH 3, and 10% vol. D2EHPA. A 10 M NaOH is used for pH control. However, replacement of pH controlling agent with ammonia solution (25%. v/v) results in interesting observations. Ammonia addition, reduces the solubility of Ni2+ cations in solution. Nickel starts to precipitate from raffinate in a crystalline bluish-green form. The obtained crystals are characterized by XRF and identified to be nickel-bearing analog of boussingaultite, a rare sulfate mineral of nickel with chemical formula of Ni (NH4)2(SO4)2.6H2O. The crystallization rate of crystals is studied. It is a slow precipitation process with 75% in 4 days.INTRODUCTION Annually, many hydrometallurgical processes such as electrowinning, solvent extraction and leaching are applied to waste filter cakes in Zanjan, Iran. These additional processes on filter cakes are critical from both environmental and economic points of view. CFC (cold filter cake) is a toxic but valuable filter cake (45-55% Zn, 11-16% Cd, 2.5-4% Ni, and 0.2-1.5% Cu) produced in many zinc production plants. Our research group at Research and Engineering Company for Non-ferrous Metals (ReCo.), developed a series of hydrometallurgical methods for extraction of zinc, cadmium and nickel from CFC (Moradkhani, & Rasouli 2012). The recovery of zinc and cadmium with alkaline leaching and electrowinning was successfully studied. The strip sulfate solution from cadmium electrowinning unit, contains high concentration of nickel with some traces of zinc impurity. This pregnant liquor solution (PLS) was analyzed and reported to contain 16.8 g/l Ni and 4.2 g/l Zn. In this work, PLS is subjected to the solvent extraction process to separate Zn from nickel (Fig. 1). The organic phase stripping solution containing 4.2 g/l zinc and 200 ppm nickel can be circulated and used in the acidic leaching step. This generates nickel solution with high purity suitable for nickel cathode production."

Jan 1, 2017

By Martin Brueggemann

The Tyrone copper solution extraction and electrowinning plant was the first such facility built by Phelps Dodge Mining Company in 1984. Over the next 20 years, the aqueous flow rate capacity of the plant has been expanded from the original design of 12,000 gallons per minute (gpm) to 34,000 gpm to meet production goals in the face of declining copper grades in the leach solutions. The ability to process higher aqueous flow rates through existing equipment comes at the expense of increased organic loss through entrainment to raffinate. These losses of organic (diluent and extraction reagents) can account for up to 10 percent of the plant?s total operating costs. With the recent dramatic price increase of petroleum-based products, these operating costs due to losses are sure to increase. This paper will discuss recent improvements at the Tyrone SXEW plant that have resulted in a 40 percent reduction of organic losses. These improvements include picket fence modifications, new fence materials, organic recovery systems, and operational practices within the solution extraction process.

Jan 1, 2006

This paper critically reviews the role of institutional research contractors (eg universities and the CSIRO) in the delivery of effective research, development and demonstration outcomes in mineral and coal processing to the Australian mineral industry. The criteria by which such R&D is justified, and the problems of quantifying the benefits of such research, are considered. Third-party funding mechanisms such as NERDDP and AMIRA are reviewed in the context of the difficulty of setting national research priorities. Some case studies are presented which illustrate both the problems and the advantages of institutional research for industry. The transfer of research outcomes to industry is identified as a significant problem which limits the effectiveness of all institutional research. Other topics reviewed include research management, the relationship between industrial companies and their research contractors, and the real costs of research. The paper offers suggestions for the ingredients needed for a successful industry-institution relationship, based on the Australian experience. It is concluded that the Australian model for this relationship is a very effective one, although there is still room for improvement.

Jan 1, 1992

By A. J. Rogers

The KX36 kimberlite was discovered using a high-resolution gradient aeromagnetic survey, with follow-up detailed ground geophysics and deflation soil sampling used to assess and prioritize the geophysical anomalies identified from the initial aeromagnetic survey. Prospect drilling intersected kimberlite in the first hole drilled on the KX36 anomaly. Preliminary evaluation has shown that KX36 is diamondiferous, and a more detailed evaluation and sampling programme is currently underway. The area around KX36 has been prospected by numerous companies over the last few decades, with sporadic kimberlite indicator mineral (KIM) recoveries in regional deflation sampling indicating the possible presence of kimberlites, but without sufficient resolution to ?home in? on specific targets. Previous (lower resolution) aeromagnetic surveys and soil sampling campaigns also did not define anomalies with sufficient detail to guide prospect drilling effectively. The discovery of KX36 highlights the prospectivity of areas of Botswana under deep Kalahari cover that have been explored previously. Keywords kimberlite exploration, central Kalahari, overburden, high resolution aeromagnetics, deflation sampling, KIM.

Jul 1, 2013

By J. A. Retty

HOLLINGER CONSOLIDATED GOLD MINES LTD., through two subsidiary companies, has the exclusive right to prospect in two contiguous areas in central Labrador. This paper presents the results of the mineral exploration that has been conducted in these areas to date. One of the subsidiaries of Hollinger. the Labrador Mining and Exploration Co. Ltd., under an agreement with the Newfoundland Commission of Government, holds an area of approximately 20,000 sq.mi., which comprises the western portion of Newfoundland-Labrador and includes the upper basins of the Hamilton and Naskaupi Rivers. (The main area of the deposits so far discovered may be located on a map at about 67° west longitude and 55° north latitude.) The other subsidiary of Hollinger, Hollinger North Shore Exploration Co. Ltd., has licensed from the Province of Quebec an area of approximately 3900 sq.mi. lying directly north of the Newfoundland-controlled area at the headwaters of the George, Whale, and Swampy Bay Rivers. The M. A. Hanna Co., large iron-ore operators of the Lake Superior region, are participating in the project. With the exception of the years 1940 and 1941, field work has been conducted in the Newfoundland area since 1936, and in the Quebec area since 1939. Hollinger assumed the management in 1942. The field base is at Hollinger Lake, some 300 miles north of the tidewater base at Seven Islands, Quebec, which, in turn, is just west of the mouth of the Moisie River, on the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Air transportation is used exclusively to service the operation.

Jan 1, 1945

By H. W. Davis, W. W. Adams, O. E. Kiessling

"Current economic problems frequently have focused attention upon the lack of adequate quantitative information indicating the relationship between human effort and output in various branches of the mineral industry. With the exception of complete records covering coal mining, only scattered information on the units of human energy required to produce a unit of raw material is available for most of the important industrial minerals. Fortunately a virtually complete statistical record is available covering this phase of the iron-ore mining industry.For many years iron-ore mining companies, whose interest in safety work is well-known, have reported annual data on employment to be used in the compilation of accident statistics. These data on hours of labor and other detailed employment information have been correlated with the statistics on production also reported annually by producers. The outstanding trends shown by this composite record for the 10-year period 1923-32 are included in the following discussion, supplemented by a summary table that presents the principal statistical background of the study. 5The substantial reduction in the number of men needed to produce the annual iron-ore requirements of the United States, as shown strikingly in the graphs, illustrates that in iron-ore production improvements in technology have been consistently winning a battle over the difficulties of nature. In 1923, for example, 41,294 men working 107,551,244 hours were required to produce 69,351,442 gross tons of merchantable ore, equivalent to an average output of 0.645 ton per man-hour. In 1929, however, only 30,763 men working 77,111,686 hours 'zero required to produce 73,027,720 tons of merchantable ore, equivalent to an average output of 0.947 ton per man-hour. Thus, from 1923 to 1929 the average number of men working decreased 25.5 percent and the total man-hours worked 28.3 percent, while the average output per man-hour increased 46.8 percent and total merchantable ore production 5.3 percent."

Feb 1, 1935

By Stephen R. Brown

Current conditions in the copper market demand that mine and plant operators make budgeted production targets at the lowest possible unit costs. For those companies bringing new production capacity on-line, achieving budgeted production levels as quickly as possible after start-up is vitally important to minimize unit costs and to begin a positive cash flow. Whether the objective is to simply improve unit costs or successfully start-up a new, complex plant, success will be strongly influenced by .the skill levels of the operators :and supervisors. The only way to assure return on plant investment, and to survive during depressed metal prices, is to ensure that plant operators have the knowledge to effectively run the plant. Technology available in computer-based, multimedia training systems, including: interactive animation, videos, voice-overs, schematics, and text can now be used to train operators at their own pace using plant-specific information. Additionally, it has been shown that learning through multimedia provides a higher degree of long term retention than more traditional learning methods.

Jan 1, 1999

By Z. Levinson, R. Dimitrakopoulos

A mining complex is an engineering system where raw materials are extracted from several mines, processed, transported, and sold to the market. The uncertainty and local variability of material grades and their locations within the related mineral deposits are critical for determining the optimal life-of-mine extraction sequence, destination policy, operating modes, and capital investment decisions, which define the production schedule of a mining complex. Infill drilling is used to further characterise a mineral deposit and reveals information that changes the representation of the resource model and potentially the resulting optimal long-term production schedule. A self-learning reinforcement learning approach is proposed to determine the optimal drilling locations that maximise the net-present value of the long-term production schedule and the associated financial forecasts by adapting the schedule to additional information. A case study at a copper mining complex demonstrates a $70 M increase in project value by collecting drilling information with a $1 M budget.

Sep 1, 2021

By G. B. Shea

In 192b, there wore 47 fatal accidents in the California petroleum industry, 14.6 per cent more than occurred in 1927 when 41 men lost their lives in the drilling, producing, manufacturing, and marketing divisions of the industry. This increase in the number of fatal accidents for 1928 has caused the first upward trend in the fatality curve of the California petroleum industry since 1923. In no other year during the 6-year period have the fatalities in any one year been greater than those for the preceding year. This fact should be given serious consideration and study by the petroleum industry, and an endeavor should be made to cause the number of fatalities again to decrease and conform to the previous gradual declining trend of the fatality curve. The following chart shows the trend of fatal accidents during the past six years:

Jan 1, 1929

By William M. Boorstein, Robert D. Pehlke

The rates of solution (of hydrogen in liquid pure iron and in several liquid binary iron alloys were meas-ured using a constant volume technique. The rates of absorption and desorption were found to be equal un-der all experimental conditions. increasing concen-trations of S, Si, or Te decrease the rate of hydrogen uptake but additions of Al, B, Cr, Cu, or Ni have no measurable effect up to concentrations normally en-countered in steelmaking practice. No relation ship was found between the effect of an alloying element on the equilibrium solubility of hydrogen in liquid iron and its effect on the solution rate constant. Mathe-rnatical analysis of the data indicates that under the present experimental conditions the rate of reaction of hydrogen with liquid iron is controlled by transport of gas solute atoms in the metal phase. Comparison of the present resuts with data on nitrogen taken un der similar conditions establishes that the hydrody-nurnic conditions which exist near the surface of a metal bath are best approximated mathematically by a surface renewal model for the case of rapid in-ductive stirring and by a boundary layer model for more quiescent melts. HYDROGEN has long been recognized as being a detrimental constituent in steel. If dissolved in the molten metal in excess of its solid solubility, hydro-gen can be evolved during solidification and cause bleeding or porosity in ingots and castings. In the solid metal, lesser amounts play a definite role in causing other defects such as hairline cracks, blisters, and embrittlement. For significant refinements to be made in metallurgical procedures designed to control or eliminate hydrogen from liquid iron or steel dur-ing processing, available equilibrium solubility data must be supplemented with reliable fundamental in-formation pertaining to the kinetic factors involved in the transfer of hydrogen to or from the metal. The scarcity of such information in the literature prompted the present investigation. PREVIOUS RESEARCH Whereas much of the existing data on the solution kinetics of gases such as nitrogen were obtained during the course of thermodynamic investigations, the solu-tion rate of hydrogen has been found too rapid to be accurately determined by conventional solubility meas-urement techniques. Consequently, little work on hy-drogen solution kinetics has been reported in the lit-erature. Carney, Chipman, and crant1 attempted to study the rate of solution and evolution of hydrogen from liquid iron by employing a newly devised sampling method. Although no significant quantitative data could be obtained, it was observed that the rate of solution was approximately equal to the rate of evolution of hy-drogen from the melt. Karnaukov and Morozov2 stud-ied the rate of absorption and Knuppel and Oeters3 the rate of desorption of hydrogen from molten iron by measuring pressure changes with time in a constant volume system. Karnaukov and Morozov determined the hydrogen pressures over their inductively stirred melts with the aid of a McLeod gage and therefore, were forced to work at pressures not in excess of 40 mm of Hg. Their experimental data conformed to a mathematical correlation based on diffusion control: and the rate coefficients calculated on this basis were shown to be independent of the initial absorption pres-sure. These authors reported the solution rate of hy-drogen to be eight-to-ten times higher than they had found for nitrogen in a previous study. They also re-ported that under identical conditions, hydrogen dis-solves somewhat more slowly in iron-columbium alloys than in pure iron. Knuppel and Oeters found that the desorption of hydrogen from pure iron at 1600°C was controlled in all cases investigated by diffusion in the metal bath as long as bubble formation was sup-pressed. This was substantiated by Levin, Kurochkin, and umrikhin4 who studied the kinetics of hydrogen evolution from liquid (technical) iron while applying a vacuum. Salter5 measured the rate of hydrogen ab-sorbed by iron buttons, arc-melted by direct current, as a function of hydrogen partial pressure in a hy-drogen-argon atmosphere. A carrier gas technique was used for analysis of the hydrogen absorbed. The initial rate of absorption was found to increase di-rectly with the square root of the partial pressure of hydrogen. EXPERIMENTAL METHOD Because of the rapid uptake and evolution of hydro-gen by iron-base melts, a constant volume technique was devised in order to obtain meaningful kinetic data over the entire course of the solution process. Apparatus. A schematic view of the experimental apparatus is given in Fig. 1. The hydrogen-liquid iron reaction system consisted of a gas storage bulb con-nected to a meltcontaining reaction chamber through a normally-closed solenoid valve. The gas storage bulb, an inverted 250 ml round-bottomed Pyrex flask was joined to the inlet port of the solenoid valve by a glass-to-metal seal. A more detailed illustration of the reaction chamber is shown in Fig. 2. The design of the Vycor reaction bulb was essentially that de-scribed by Weinstein and Elliott6 with the exception of a shorter, larger diameter gas inlet for this kinetic study. In position, the reaction bulb was closely by an eight-turn coil of water-cooled copper tubing which, when energized by a 400-kc oscillator, provided the inductive heating source. The walls of the bulb were maintained relatively cool by circulating cold water along their outer surface, thus preventing

Jan 1, 1970