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By H. M. Howe

§ 24. Introduction.—This paper discusses the chief existing data as to the temperature, in iron-carbon alloys, of Ae3, the upper limit of the transformation range when in equilibrium, as distinguished from Ac3, the temperature at which the end of the transformation is noted in heating up, and from Ar3, that at which its beginning is noted in cooling down. The former is in fact carried above Ae3 and the latter below Ae3 by lag. I touch incidentally on the influence of manganese on Ae3 (§ 29, p. 614). The sections, tables, and illustrations are numbered consecutively with those in the accompanying papers by Howe and Levy on Determination of the Position of Ae3 in Carbon-Iron Alloys, and by Burgess, Crowe, and Rawdon on Thermal and Microscopical Examination of Professor Howe's Standard Commercial Steels, to which the present paper forms a sequel. § 25. The contradictoriness of our present evidence is shown by grouping it together in Fig. 14. For instance, both Goerens and Meyer (Series 2) and Meuthen (Series 12) used practically stationary temperature, and thus reduced the influence of lag very greatly; yet Ae3 for 0.32 carbon steel according to the former investigators is 894", but according to Meuthen it is at or below 770°, a discrepancy of 124" or more. In view of our ability to measure these high temperatures within a few degrees, the existence of such a discrepancy is as unwelcome as it seems needless. I attack the thankless task of bringing some order out of this chaos. In Part 11. (§§ 29 to 39) I consider the chief causes of error. In Part III. (§§ 40 to 48) I apply certain corrections to some of the existing data, review those data, weight them, and calculate a prob-

Jan 1, 1914

By J. Brune, P. J. Coleman, L. Martini

Research in the field of mining safety and health in the United States plays an important part in protecting the lives of miners. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Mining Program conducts surveillance, studies and developmental work aimed at improving the safety and health of miners. With recent reviews of the Mining Program by the National Academy of Sciences and the Mining Program response (NIOSH, 2008), the importance of setting goals, conducting high quality engineering and scientific research and evaluating the outputs, outcomes, relevance and impacts of these projects has been reemphasized. Surveillance of reported injuries is a first step in deciding on research directions and in designing specific projects. Groups of injuries often share features and attributes that suggest common causes and may respond to similar preventive efforts. Identifying groups of injuries also serves to prioritize intervention efforts. The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) Accident and Injury database (MSHA, 2008) provides individual case reports of mining injuries, illnesses and certain no-injury accidents (events such as roof falls that stop mine production or miners’ activities for more than one hour). This database is an indispensable resource for researchers and stakeholders needing information on the statistics of these events. From an epidemiological perspective, research projects target groups of miners at risk due to specific patterns of work, equipment, mine settings and the management of safety and health in their mines. Incidence rates are provided by the MSHA data for selected variables, such as surface/underground location, standard industrial classification and state. While incidence rates are the preferred measure for all variables, denominators are not typically available; for example, to more clearly understand the data about injury by occupational type, it would be necessary to conduct demographic surveys. A current survey of the demographics of the mining industry should be complete by 2010, which will allow incidence rates to be developed for a number of variables such as age, occupation and experience. This survey will provide the first update of its kind since the first survey was conducted in 1985. This report describes an alternative method of analyzing and presenting MSHA data for the purpose of identifying high-cost, high-severity injuries and illnesses. Researchers at the NIOSH Spokane Research Laboratory (SRL) developed programs to find the top five most frequent accident classes, natures of injury, types of accidents and other selected variables from the MSHA database. Studying these variables gives a cross-sectional snapshot of the most frequent groups of injuries within a commodity, regional group or time period, and allows researchers to quickly understand developing patterns for new research projects. The primary benefit of this approach is to

Jan 1, 2009

By J. F. Strunk Jr., K. M. Maestas, Y. Chai, R. Legrand, R. L. Henry

"Groundwater with elevated sulfate and metals was treated using a sulfate-reducing pilot PRB consisting of a series of six 55-gallon drums filled with ZVI (Fe0), wood chips, brewer’s grain, limestone, and emulsified vegetable oil (EVO). Sulfate was reduced from >3000 to <250 mg/L and Cd, Cu, Mn, Ni, and Zn concentrations declined up to 3 orders of magnitude in 2 months. After 6 months of operation at a 7.5-day retention time, sulfate broke through. The system was then rejuvenated by injecting EVO in each drum and operated for 5 more months at a 9-day retention time. Sulfate-reducing bacteria in the pilot system grew by 3 to 4 orders of magnitude in 2 months. Some cementation of the PRB media was observed in the first 2 drums after processing 25 pore volumes of water, due to preferential upstream precipitation of sulfides; this can be avoided through operational modifications. Resulting permeability losses were estimated at 0.1% to 1% per year. Absorption/desorption was tested at bench scale to evaluate the use of various oil-soaked sorbents as a slow-release source of dissolved carbon. The tests show that oil sorbents can increase the useful life of a PRB between oil refills to over 100 pore volumes. INTRODUCTION High sulfate concentrations, low pH, and dissolved metal exceedances are common characteristics of mining-influenced water (MIW). Above-ground such MIW is commonly treated using biochemical reactors (BCR). In a BCR, water generally flows vertically downward through a layer of biomass, such as wood chips, manure, etc. The dissolved organics resulting from the decay of this material are oxidized first by microbes using oxygen; when oxygen is exhausted, other bacteria can use nitrate, and then sulfate to oxidize organics. Sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) reduce sulfate to sulfide, which quickly reacts with metals to form largely insoluble and stable metal sulfides. These reactions can be summarized as follows:"

Jan 1, 2016

By C. Lumley

The management of the Anglo Platinum (AP) mining technical systems (MTS) embarked upon a process of defining the strategy for the MTS department. The newly established department forms part of the greater Group Information Technology (IT). The strategic process took place within an environment that had witnessed a dramatic proliferation of IT implementations across the group within the last three years. The IT department has been structured in terms of the classical plan, build and run functions with the applications and integration streams running perpendicular across these three functions. The application stream is divided into commercial and mining technical systems with business systems integration the third stream. The mining technical systems department supports mine management to effectively gather, analyse and disseminate data relating to the ore reserve by integrating a number of strategically selected IT applications to ensure that the safety, legal and operational requirements are met. This service to business is rendered by management of a strategic outsource partner via tightly controlled service level agreements (SLAs). The framework used for creating a mining technical systems department that is empowered to add value to business was formulated using the AP value chain as both the starting point and guiding process to ensure alignment to the greater internal strategy of the business. Keywords: Platinum, Mine planning, Mining technical systems, Value chain.

Jan 1, 2003

In reply to inquiries and comments which have reached me since the publication of this paper, and in explanation of some seeming discrepancies between my statements in the text concerning the amount of displacement of the faults, on one hand, and certain figures in the plates on the other hand, I give here, with some additional remarks, my measurements of the displacements in the different sections, which it originally seemed unnecessary to print : By displacement, I mean neither the throw, i.e., the vertical distance apart of the two edges of a faulted bed (what Mr.

Jan 1, 1896

Mr Kapp&apos;s paper helps considerably to clarify the subsidence/mine geometry relationships in New South Wales. It is in the best tradition of the presentation of field investigations such as has built up internationalknowledge over the years.The Author has plotted in Fig. 10, the maximum subsidence developed over each of a number of panels of different width/depth ratios and concludes that the maximum possible subsidence over a super critical extractionarea is around 0.65 of the mining height and that this is reached with the critical width/depth ratio of extraction of around 1.5.Although, as Mr. Kapp says, the maximum possible subsidence in the UK can reach 90% of the seam thickness extracted the more usual figure for the first seam is up to 80%. It has also been found in the UK that with shallow workings such as those at Kemiro Coliery the critical width of extraction is 2.0 or more times the depth.

Jan 1, 1981

By J Jackson, E Sellers

Blasting related indices were developed to quantify variation in rock strength and structure for each stope, and for each lift of each stope, as part of a Mine to Mill study at an underground open stope mine. The indices were derived from combinations of data from underground diamond drilling because the simplifying assumptions contained in the block model prevented sufficient differentiation in rock mass characteristics to enable adjustments to the blast design.Application of combinations of blasting related indices enabled the identification of stopes with a high potential for inconsistent and oversize fragmentation, underbreak and overbreak. The indices also fragmentation outcomes to deliver increased material flow within stopes, better digability and predict indicative mill throughput. The stopes with issuesCalibration of the results enabled adjustments to the blast design based on the rock mass conditions and accordingly improved the blast outcomes. This enabled improved productivity by reducing underbreak and overbreak, having a more appropriate fragmentation, which reduces unplanned rock handling and improves bogging. The reduction in recovery drilling creates huge opportunities to improve output by reducing production delays and decreasing the overall cost per tonne. By understanding the explosive performance and blast energy distribution in relation to rock mass blastability poor, performing designs in blind upholes and convex stopes were identified.The conclusion of the work is that value improvement, regarding increased revenue and reduced costs, can be achieved across the whole underground Mine to Mill process chain by developing stope based indices from the existing geological information to correctly tailor the blast design to the rock within, and surrounding, the stope.CITATION:Jackson, J and Sellers, E, 2017. Blasting related indices as the key to underground blasting improvements in a challenging rock mass, in Proceedings 13th AusIMM Underground Operators’ Conference 2017, pp 23–32 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).

Oct 16, 2017

By Alex Luyima, Jaan Kers, Lifeng Zhang

"The pyrolysis of PWBs was investigated by a TG-DTA-MS furnace at 300–1173 K. The kinetics and the control of emitted gas during the pyrolysis of PWBs with and without chemical additives were studied. Moreover, the possibility of controlling the amount of toxic exhaust gases like HBr, C6H6, Br2, Cl2, HCl gas and recovering beneficial gaseous fuels like CH4 and H2 from pyrolysis process is discussed. The MS data for each PWB sample were examined as a function of temperature and particular m/z values could be associated with the mass loss steps in the TG data. The degradation of the organic material was characterized by m/z = 2, 16, 18, 28, 36, 44, 71, 78, 81, and 160. Fe2O3 was the best inhibitor of toxic HBr and C6H6 when compared to Al2O3, CaO Y-zeolite and ZSM-5. Moreover, it had no significant effect on the valuable H2 and CH4 gas evolution. This selective inhibition of toxic gases while maintaining the valuable ones make Fe2O3 the best candidate among the investigated additives in controlling gas emissions from PWB pyrolysis process.IntroductionThe electronic and electric industry is one of the world’s largest and fastest growing manufacturing sectors. As a consequence of this growth, electrical and electronic waste (e-waste), such as computers, washing machines, printers, mobile phones, television sets, stereos, radios, etc., is generated in large quantities around the world. Printed wiring boards (PWBs) are a common component of many electronic and electric systems.[1]. The rapid development and expansion of the electronics industry over the past several decades have led to a dramatic increase in the production of PWBs and a corresponding increase in the amount of waste generated from both production and disposal. The environmental impacts of the treatment and recycling of PWBs waste have become a major concern [1-2]. PWBs are particularly problematic to recycle because of the heterogeneous mix of organic material, metals, and glass fiber [1]."

Jan 1, 2012

By J. C. McDonald

A DDITIONAL experimental data are presented in this note on a phenomenon which has been touched on but lightly in the literature. The common magnesium base rolling alloy (AZ31B) contains about 3 pet A1 and 1 pet Zn. When cold rolled, it hardens until it starts to break up in the rolls at 30 to 50 pet reduction. When it is heated after rolling to full hardness, it softens. However, other magnesium alloys have shown themselves capable of being cold rolled indefinitely, provided the ratio of roll diameter to starting gage is sufficiently high. As measured by the tensile test, these alloys actually soften when the reduction becomes large (60 to 90 pct). A subsequent heating at 300&apos; to 500°F can produce hardening of this metal. Heating at higher temperatures (600&apos; to 800°F) causes recrystalliza-tion and softening. Menzen&apos; has shown that a magnesium base alloy can be cold rolled without intermediate anneals as much as 90 pet. The alloy studied, Mg-1.5 pet Mn, softened considerably between 20 and 90 pet reduction, as measured by tensile properties; a decrease in yield strength of 30 pet, and an increase in elongation from 3.2 to 16.7 pet (longitudinal direction of the sheet). However, Menzen gives no data on the reaction of this metal. to heating. Ansel and Betterton2 and Hurst and Hatch3 report a similar effect in Mg-1.5 pet Mn-0.1 pet Ca. Their data show an initial hardening, followed by softening. The former authors also show that the alloy softened by cold rolling will harden when heated at low temperatures, and that these effects are absent in Mg-3 pet Al-1 pet Zn. In the course of work4, 5 some years ago, the author observed similar effects with alloys containing cerium, thorium, or zirconium; but not with elements like aluminum, silver, or zinc. Table IA contains the results of an experiment which shows these effects rather well. A binary alloy with 0.3 pet total rare earths (Mischmetal* added) was rolled hot to 1/16 in. and then annealed to full softness by heating 30 min at 800°F. Rolling was continued at 1.5 pet per pass to 80 pet total reduction on 8 in. diam rolls. The metal was harder after 20 pet work than initially but, at 80 pet reduction, properties were back to their original values. Heating for 1 hr at 450°F produced about the same hardness whether the reduction was 20 or 80 pet. At intermediate reductions, the metal hardened, but not to as high values. Extensive cold rolling may also be carried out on metal hot rolled at temperatures sufficiently low to produce a semihard temper. Mg-0.6 pet Zr was rolled to 0.1 in. at 700° to 800°F, 30 pet per pass. As shown in Table IB, a further cold reduction of 85 pet, at 1.5 pet per pass, definitely softened the metal.

Jan 1, 1959

By Seth K. Martin, Tony Nichlany, Alan R. Poeppel, Konstantinos Syngros

"This paper presents a case study on bored pile construction in challenging karst conditions below a supertall building in Kuala Lumpur. Innovative design and construction techniques helped keep the project moving through very difficult and unpredictable geological and drilling conditions. The development encompasses about 12,400 square meters and includes a 77-story tower, a 59-story tower, a five-story podium, and four contiguous basement levels. The site is underlain by a residual soil derived from a siltstone/claystone (the Kenny Hill formation), then limestone bedrock. Subsurface conditions are relatively uniform within the Kenny Hill and highly variable at the limestone surface. Extreme cases included 40-meter-tall underground caverns, 40-meter-tall pinnacles, and a 50-meter-tall underground rock ledge. Local piling practice in Kuala Lumpur involves deriving pile capacity entirely in the Kenny Hill formation to avoid the unpredictable limestone surface. However, the massive tower foundation loads and relatively shallow bedrock required the piles to be socketed in the limestone. The 77-story tower will be supported by 2.0- and 2.2-meter-diameter bored piles 50 to 100+ meters long, socketed in limestone, with working loads between 40 and 70 Meganewtons. Two Osterberg-cell load tests were used to develop a site-specific rock socket skin friction correlation with RQD. Exploratory rock probes were drilled at each pile location to design the rock socket length based on the rock quality and sloping rock conditions. The rock mass was pressure-grouted during each rock probe to improve the rock quality and fill voids in the rock.INTRODUCTIONThe Kuala Lumpur City Centre, home of the Petronas Towers and the world’s deepest foundations, will be the future home of a new supertall tower. The 77-story tower will be supported by a piled-raft foundation that relies on piles terminating in the highly erratic, karstic Kuala Lumpur limestone formation. The high building loads coupled with relatively shallow limestone across the majority of the tower footprint forced the piles to extend into the limestone."

Jan 1, 2016

By Janusz Majta

The aim of this work is to investigate the control of microstructure evolution through variation of particular deformation parameters in the two-phase (intercritical) region. Niobium-microalloyed and low-carbon steels were investigated. A detailed examination of the factors affecting the ferrite microstructures of tested steels indicated that there were distinct advantages of finishing at temperatures in the austenite-ferrite region. The various results of deformation in the two-phase region are presented. Consequently, the influence of the most important process parameters on the microstructure evolution and mechanical response of the material is determined. The prime objective of the realized research work is the determination of relationship between the history of deformation and final product quality i.e. texture and mechanical properties. To reach the objective, the constitutive equations are proposed for modeling the effects of the hot-deformation process occurring in the austenite and austenite-ferrite region of low carbon and microalloyed steels on the mechanical properties of the resulting product. These models link advanced, finite element approaches simulating metal flow and heat transfer during hot-plastic deformation with constitutive equations describing microstructural processes and mechanical properties.

Jan 1, 2003

By B. Devulapalli

A mathematical model of the industrial hydrocyclone based on fluid dynamics is a better alternative to the currently existing empirical models. The swirling-flow velocities are determined by solving the Navier-Stokes equations with an appropriate turbulence model. The solution of the momentum-balance equations yields the flow field inside the hydrocyclone which determines the particle trajectories, and subsequently the classification curve. The essence of the model is that the physical dimensions of the hydrocyclone and the slurry characteristics can be incorporated, and the influence of these parameters reflects on the flow predictions. The predicted tangential and axial velocities in a 250-mm hydrocyclone are in good agreement with the laser-Doppler velocimetry measurements. Finally, the predicted classification curves show good agreement with experimental data measured on a KREBS Dl0B hydrocyclone.

Jan 1, 1993

By Robert Hopler

Of the common causes of the larger mine accidents, such as falls of roof and coal, gas and dust explosions, mine fires, and the misuse of explosives, all of which are often closely related, each must be studied and fought in a manner peculiar to itself. The last mentioned, the misuse of black powder and other explosives, is sometimes considered the least important of these causes of mine accidents; but its importance is much greater than the statistics indicate, for the reason that the misuse of explosives is the true cause of many of the fatal mine fires, gas or dust explosions, and falls of roof that are credited to other causes.

Jan 1, 2012

By Brendan Howard

Rio Tinto has a large globally distributed technical workforce and needs to ensure these employees have the requisite skills to not only manage technical risk and enable safe efficient production, but also ensure they are keeping pace with a fast-changing technological landscape. Traditional approaches to learning struggle for scale and an inability to respond to the extreme diversity of capability development needs. In response, Rio Tinto has successfully introduced innovative approaches to learning and employee engagement via leveraging the power of globally distributed networks for peer-to-peer knowledge transfer and providing mechanisms to recognise, reward and retain the individual technical contributors.

Feb 1, 2024

By Bhaskar B. Thapa, Michael T. McRae, Johannes V. Greunen

This paper describes the preliminary design of the fourth bore of the Caldecott Tunnels along State Route 24 in Oakland, California. The paper focus is on two major aspects of the project: initial support system design and seismic design. The initial support system was designed based on the New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM).NATM provides the required flexibility to accommodate the variable ground conditions in the weak, folded, and faulted rock along the alignment. The seismic design provides a final lining system that meets serviceability requirements for a 1,500 year seismic event with an estimated peak ground acceleration of 1.2g.

Jan 1, 2007

By Nader Golchinfar

The V-shaped breakout zones around excavation boundary have been captured by a variety of numerical methods such as FEM and DEM methods and failure criteria such as linear Mohr-Coulomb and non-linear Hoek-Brown failure criteria. Diederichs (2007) used Hoek-Brown parameters in his spalling parameter approach; however, it is convenient to use the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion in numerical modeling because the material parameters can easily be determined from triaxial tests. It is shown in this study that when peak and residual strength parameters as well as dilation angle are properly defined, the brittle Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion can be used to model depth of failure near underground excavations satisfactorily.

Jun 1, 2012

By R. H. W. Chadwick

We in Kennecott are well aware that Alaskans are interested in the progress of our project at Ruby Creek. We would very much like to be able to present you with a final report at this time and tell you about a new mine. I&apos;m afraid, however, that it will be several years at best before such a report can be made. This, then, is an interim report to describe briefly some of our findings to date, and to acquaint you with some of the problems, both geologic and economic, which must 5e resolved favorably before we can talk about a mine. There are several things about this project which make it unusual and interesting to those of us who have been connected with it. Firstly, there is the fundamental importance to Alaska, in the present stage of its economic history, of any undertaking which offers promise of turning a natural resource into a competitive export product. I am sure all of us would get a lot more satisfaction out of having a part in bringing in a new mine in Alaska than we would out of adding another one to the long list in, say, Arizona.

Jan 1, 1960

By Jr. Hazen

Relationships that may exist between assays and sample interval lengths when using unequal sample intervals in mine sampling have been investigated as part of the larger research problem of adapting statistical methods to the analysis of weighted average grades. The theoretical relationship between the amount of difference in the weighted and unweighted average grade of ore and the size of the correlation coefficient between assay value and sample interval length was found to be linear. Numerous examples of actual field sample and assay data, which have been obtained by using unequal sample intervals, are documented, and the differences between weighted and unweighted average grades of ore and the correlation coefficients between assays and sample interval lengths have been computed and plotted on graphs. Differences between these actual field data and the expected theoretical linear relationship are examined. It is hypothesized that the use of unequal sample intervals in mine sampling is, in fact, stratified sampling in a statistical context. The sampler establishes stratification by selecting unequal sample intervals on the basis of differences in lithology, changes in rock type, characteristics of mineralization, or differences in metal content. Statistically} methods currently used in mine sampling, involving unequal sample intervals, fail to consider differences in the inherent variances in grade of ore within the various strata established by using unequal sample intervals. Consequently the strata are sampled with different precision. This difference in precision of sampling between strata may account for much of the deviation between the plotted points representing actual field sampling data and the theoretical linear relationship between the amount of the difference between weighted and unweighted average grade of ore and the size of correlation coefficient between assays and sample interval lengths.

Jan 1, 1966

By M. Bender, H. D. Goodfellow

"Belt conveyors, because of their low capital and operating costs and inherent flexibility in handling a wide variety of products, have numerous applications in the mining industry. With the increased emphasis on improving the workplace environment, dust emissions from belt conveyors at transfer and other points have become a significant problem for many applications.The paper reviews belt conveyor dust control technology and compares dust emissions from belt conveyor systems with other possible materials handling systems. Technical information on existing belt conveyor installations which have been designed to minimize or eliminate dust emissions is summarized. The important features of good design as well as the necessary input from operating and maintenance personnel are highlighted. The status of research and development work on dust control on belt conveyor systems on a world-wide basis is discussed. A proposed methodology for field measurements of emission factors from belt conveyor systems is presented. Data collected from such a test program can be used to establish a design basis for new dust-free belt conveyors.IntroductionBelt conveyors have proven themselves over the year s in the mining industry as a reliable and low-co st method of moving bulk material at high tonnage rates. Because of the above, as well as their inherent flexibility in handling a wide variety of products, belt conveyors are often called the ""workhorses"" of bulk material handling systems. For many processing plants, belt conveyors serve as the ""vital link"" in providing feed to the plant and the removal of the finished product. As would be expected, there has been considerable engineering effort in designing rugged and reliable belt conveyor systems.It is also well known that belt conveyor systems are a primary source of respirable dust emissions. The major sources are from the tail pulley where material is received and the head pulley where material is discharged, from the return idlers, due to the fine material attached to the return belt, and from the take-up pulley. It is usually considered that for dust particles less than 10 microns, these particles will remain airborne and thus can have a profound effect on the workplace environment."

Jan 1, 1982

By A. Mitchell

An approximate phase diagram has been developed for the CaF2-CaC2 system, indicating a eutectic point at 1240°C, Ncac2 = 0.13, and no detectable solid solution in either phase. The liquidus line is shown to correspond to a simple c22- ion in solution. A thermo-chemical study of&apos; the reaction between carbon-saturated Ni-Ca alloys and CaC2-CaF2 liquids indicates that lhe Raoullian activity coefficient of CaC2 in dilute solution in Cap2 al 1500°C lies between 8 and 10. Some effects of the stabilily of Cap2-CaC2 solutions at high temperatures on electroslag remelting praclice are outlined. THE alkaline earth acetylides. MIIC2, have a reasonably high thermochemical stability at high temperature in the solid state,&apos; with the exception of magnesium, which forms an unstable acetylide at low temperatures (-500°C) and a carbide, Mg2C3, in the range 700&apos; to 1000°C. The acetylides of calcium and barium have been shown to have limited solubility in their respective chlorides,&apos; and further these solutions contain the acetylide as a C: ion.&apos; The equivalent magnesium solutions have not been studied. Although calcium "carbide" is used as a desulfuriz-ing reagent in steelmaking. and is possibly present as an acetylide-oxide phase in very basic electric arc practice slags, the acetylide ion appears to be substantially unstable in a silicate slag.* As a conse- *This instability arises from equilibria in the reaction: CaC2 + CO = (Ca0) + 3C where the low intrinsic solubility of CaC2 in silicate lattice, and the low activity of CaO in a silicate solution where CaO/Si02 < 1, combine to give a very small equilibrium concentration of CaC2 in solution in such silicate slags at temperatures in the region of I 500°c, even under carbon-saturated conditions. Under highly basic conditions, a liquid CaO-CaC2 phase may separate from the silicate system quence of this, the possibility that reactions involving CaC2 in silicate solutions are of importance to general steelmaking practice is remote. However, in operations involving a slag primarily based on a halide, or alkaline earth oxide, we must take into account the possibility that CaC2 will appear in quantities sufficient to significantly affect both the chemical and physical properties of the slag. The work outlined below presents a study of the CaF2-CaC2 system intended to provide sufficient data to allow an estimate of the importance of this system to electroslag remelting and welding practice. However, we should indicate at this point that there will be other processes, e.g., heat treatment, flux cleaning of castings, fused salt electrolysis, and so forth, where alkaline-earth halide fluxes are in contact with carbon, graphite, or carbides, and where halide-acetylide solutions must be taken into account. EXPERIMENTAL 1) Structural Studies. In view of the difficulty ex-perienced in handling CaC2 prepared from calcium turnings and propane gas at 700°C, it was decided to use solutions prepared directly in the equilibration apparatus, Fig. 1. The starting materials were: a) Ni-Ca-C alloy, prepared by adding calcium to liquid nickel held under calcium fluoride in an induction-heated graphite crucible; b) calcium fluoride, prepared by fusing calcium fluoride powder (British Drug House "EXTRA PURE") calcium fluoride in an induction-heated graphite crucible, in air, followed by electrolysis between graphite electrodes at 1 amp cm-2 density, for 10&apos; coulombs per g CaF2. This procedure decomposes the CaO produced by hydrolysis during the fusion step, replacing it by CaC2; Ca2+ + 2e-Ca*(l) Ca*(l) + 2C(gr)-(CaC2)caF2 O2- -2e-O*(g) O*(g) +C(gr)-CO(g) This results in a composition of between 2 and 5 wt pct CaC2 in CaF2. Fifty grams (in lumps) of this material were placed in a graphite crucible, together with Ni-Ca-C alloy (averaging 20 wt pct Ca), and the equilibration apparatus assembled. The alloy reacted with the crucible at high temperature to give CaC2, which dissolved in the calcium fluoride solution to give the desired composition. Cooling curves were plotted manually for these liquids, with rapid stirring and CaF2 seeding to minimize supercooling, and using a Pt/Pt 13 Rh thermocouple calibrated on the freezing points of nickel and copper. This gave a reproducibility of ±0.l°C. and an absolute accuracy of the thermocouple of ±l°C. An example curve is shown in Fig. 2, with the CaF2 end of the binary system in Fig. 3. The CaF2-CaC2 ingots were crushed, under dry nitrogen, and sampled for chemical analysis and X-ray examination. Analytical details are given in the Appendix. Powder diffraction data indicated that the only phases present in all samples examined were calcium fluoride and tetragonal (Types I and 111) calcium acetylide,4 with no evidence of solid solutions or compound formation. 2) Thermochemical Studies. The apparatus used to obtain activity data on CaC2 in these systems is shown in Fig. 4. It consists of an arrangement whereby the graphite crucible and its contents (CaF2-CaC2. Ni-Ca-C) can be rapidly cooled without exposure to air. Trial experiments to determine an equilibration time by ap-

Jan 1, 1969