Search Documents

By A. A. Angelov

This paper presents a unique method of monitoring the effectiveness of the planning process as well as the execution of mine plans. The method primarily determines the degree of deviation from the original mine plans by comparing actual mined areas to initially planned mining areas. The performance of mining operations is also measured by comparing actual and planned tonnages for a particular period. Once the degree of deviation from mine plans has been established the cause/s of the deviation can be determined through a simple fault tree analysis. Accurate identification of the reasons of deviation can aid the mine in selecting possible methods to correct the deviation. It is, however, beyond the scope of this paper to discuss the methods employed in correcting such deviations, as each mining operation will have unique causes of plan deviation and methods of remedying them. Deviations from the plan greatly affect the yields obtainable, which in turn affects the life of mine, thus having negative economic and financial implications. Accordingly, this paper presents a project management method which aims to reduce risk by improving planning systems to ensure optimum overall extraction of coal reserves.

Jan 1, 2010

By Stanley L. Lopata, Eric B. Kula

SEVERAL methods are available for determining pole figures by X-ray means.' The earlier film methods have been replaced by techniques in which the intensities are measured by Geiger counters on an X-ray diffractometerZm7. These methods utilize either flat transmission or reflection samples,214°8 cylindrical specimens,3 or spherical specimens.7 A single transmission or reflection sample will not yield information over the complete pole figure. The cylindrical specimens suggested by Nortod and the spherical specimen of Jetter and Borie7 have the advantage of allowing the whole pole figure to be obtained without any corrections to the intensity for absorption, There is a lower limit to the size of sheet which can be conveniently studied, however, and sample preparation can be rather tedious. Probably the most common method today for determining the complete pole figure is that developed by Schulz. A flat reflection sample is used for determining the pole figure from the center out to about 70". Because of the geometry of the system used, little or no correction for absorption or irradiated volume is necessary.4'6 A separate transmission sample is used for the region near the edge of the pole figure. This procedure requires two separate samples, one of which must be a thin carefully-prepared transmission sample. Furthermore, since the reflection and transmission data are in different arbitrary intensity units, a region of overlap must be obtained, and the intensity data from one set of measurements converted to units of the other. These are serious disadvantages of this method, and they point out the need for a simplified procedure. Since the reflection technique can be used for planes whose normals lie up to about 70° from the sample surface normal, it is apparent that a complete pole figure can be obtained by reflection alone if sample surfaces are cut at oblique angles to the rolling plane Specifically, if a rolled sample is cut so that the normal to the surface formed lies equidistant (54" 44') from the rolling plane normal, rolling direction, and transverse direction, then complete information for one quadrant of the pole figure can be obtained by reflection from the surface. Fig. 1 shows this oblique surface, as well as the position of the pole of this surface in the pole figure. When a surface has been cut oblique to the rolling plane, the standard polar stereographic net is inconvenient to use, and it would be more desirable to have the center of the net coincide with the pole of the oblique plane. Fig. 2 shows such a net, where the center has been offset 54' 44' to correspond to a specimen cut as in Fig. 1. This net was in effect obtained by rotating a standard polar stereographic net 54" 44' with the help of a Wulff net. With the experimental setup used. a sample can be cut from plate of 1/2-in. thickness or br Gen- erally thinner sheet is under investigation, and a composite specimen must be used. A convenient procedure has been to bond together, using epoxy resin, sufficient sheets to form a cube. These are clamped in a vise, and when dry, the whole vise is rotated and a flat surface ground at the required angle. The sample is then mounted inside a larger steel ring using Koldmount, the backside ground flat and parallel to the approximate desired thickness. The sample is then polished and etched to remove any effects of cold working during grinding. With this method only one quadrant of the pole figure is obtained. Often pole figures show symmetry around the rolling and transverse directions, and any slight asymmetry is due to scatter. Should the pole figure not be symmetrical, four oblique surfaces, corresponding to the four quadrants of the pole figure, would have to be examined. In most cases there is symmetry at least around the rolling direction, which reduces to two the number of quadrants to be investigated. For many purposes all that is required is an average polefigure for the four quadrants. This canreadilybe obtained with composite specimens of sheet material, where sheets Corresponding to each of the four quadrants can be intermixed. The four quadrants can be obtained by considering sheet in the normal position, and by rotatiolls of 180" around the sheet normal, the rolling direction, and the transverse direction. If desired, the whole thickness of the sheet can be used, yielding an average of the surface and interior textures; or the surface material can be removed from each sheet, resulting in a pole figure for the center alone. Eugene S. Meieran of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has independently developed the same method. His results, adapted to a pole figure goniometer with a specimen spiraler, will be described in another publication.

Jan 1, 1962

By Herbert F. Miller

For a long time I have believed that the gas- and brick-costs of open-hearth furnaces using prodncer-gas could be greatly decreased by a change in the design of the port, which would materially reduce the first-cost of the furnace, the rebuilding-cost, and the repair-cost. The defects of the present type of such furnaces, which has clone duty for so many years, may be studied in Fig. 1, in which A A are the two air-uptakes, B is the gas-uptake, and C the end of the gas-port. In the present type of furnace, C is practically 011 the edge of the bath and therefore combustion begins to take place at that point, but has no effect until the gas passes from 5 to 10 ft. into the hearth. As the furnace grows older, C moves back by reason of the burning or falling down of the arch. The furnace reaches its highest efficiency when C has moved a certain distance, but is still near enough to the bath for the overhead layer of air to hold the gas down on the bath, and far enough back to permit combustion to take place at some distance from the bath. This latter fact means that the temperature is sufficient to melt steel at the edge of the port. From this time on, the furnace decreases in efficiency. What is the reason ? As C moves further hack, the gas is released from the gas-port at a point where there is little or no overhead layer of air. The result is that the gas floats along the roof, with the air mostly underneath it. Why the air does not stay over the gas is readily seen in Fig. 1. The lines of draft naturally run parallel to the length of the furnace. The air-uptakes being on the sides and the gas-port in the middle, most of the air will naturally be drawn along the sides of the furnace and the layer of air will be thinnest over the gas, where it is most needed.

Jan 1, 1914

By K. Duckworth

The treatment of Turam data by conventional procedures does not permit the interpreter to make any estimate of induced current magnitudes. This problem may be overcome by using an alternative data treatment procedure. It is shown that the conventional and alternative procedures are equally satisfactory in terms of their ability to provide the location of line currents and estimates of conductor quality. A full description and evaluation of both procedures is presented in conjunction with field examples to show how the alternative procedure may assist interpretation when used to complement the conventional approach.

Jan 1, 1973

ON presenting the medalist, J.. V. W. Reynders said, in part: "Far the greatest progress in the art of steel-nuking has occurred in the production of lighter forms such as tool steels and steels entering into the moving parts of machinery generally, and particularly into the con-struction of automobiles and airplanes. In this highly specialized field in which the study of alloys and heat treatment has brought about such fundamental changes of design and practice, Dr. Mathews has achieved a ranking position. "As the technical head of the largest producer of special steels, his laboratory conclusions are frequently but a few steps removed from practical exploitation. The experimental determinations of yesterday must be sufficiently conclusive to form the basis for the specific plans of today, and to warrant commercial production tomorrow. His is not the complacent atmosphere of theoretical speculation, but one in which practice fol-lows close upon the heels of scientific research.

Jan 3, 1928

By Joey Hoang, Robert Johansson, Tapani Keronen, Mikael Jåfs, Jani Jansson, Mikko Korpi

At the Copper 2016 conference in Kobe, Japan, Outotec introduced a vision for the year 2020, wherein smelting would make use of four digital cornerstones: intelligent instruments, advanced process control, improved information management and transparency of and access to data. Since then, this vision coined the phrase “Fully Automated Smelter” with the mission promising a concept where no manual actions from human operators would be needed during normal smelter operations. Replacing repetitive physical work, collection and analysis of everyday production data has a great potential for further automation and will provide productive ways to improve efficiency and safety of smelters in the future. Therefore, a lot of emphasis has been put into developing solutions to automate these tasks and to move people out of harm’s way. A lot of new equipment, systems and optimization tools are under development. In addition, a lot of effort is going into developing dynamic process models and advanced control systems to interface with the plant automation systems. The goal is to integrate all these concepts to meet Outotec’s Fully Automated Smelter vision. This paper will cover these latest achievements toward this vision and introduce the near-future of digital smelting. INTRODUCTION As is well known already, the humankind is currently experiencing a change, extent of which is broadly studied by the governmental, educational and industrial institutions and parties. The wellbeing and quality of life have traditionally been improved alongside the developments in industrial production, which is now about to enter its fourth revolution. Therefore, the current change is often described as fourth industrial revolution, or industry 4.0 (or industrie 4.0, as named by Acatech, 2013) and can be considered anything from small incremental development to a ground-breaking global reset that will affect everyone’s lives. Many seem to agree, that the scale of change will indeed be big, even significantly bigger than the three industrial revolutions before it (Pellini, Weyrauch, Malho & Carden, 2019; Geissbauer, Vedso & Schrauf, 2016; Jansson, Bjorklund, Lahtinen, Heinonen, Jafs & Fagerlund, 2016).

Jan 1, 2019

By Q Fan

The steelmaking desulfurisation plays an important role in coal-based steelmaking route of blast furnace and BOF converter within the flow sheet of BF-deS-BOF. With the advent of H2-based ironmaking and steelmaking process, the transition flow sheet of DRI-Smelter-BOF has been assessed and developed by the steelmaking industry. What is the role of deS in H2-based route of DRI-smelter-BOF? This paper will present the influence of sulfur-containing iron ore on steelmaking desulfurisation and the leading role of EAF-smelter played in H2-based steelmaking route. The sulfur contents of iron ore vary considerably around the world and lower-grade iron ores with high sulfur are likely to be used for H2-based route, a considerable amount of sulfur that comes from DRI will report to the melt of EAF-smelter and the operating conditions of EAF-smelter also impact the sulfur content of the hot melt for steelmaking deS. The EAF-smelter of H2-based route is the focus of the steelmaking industry at moment, unfortunately, an industrial-scale EAF-smelter has been the missing link of the flow sheet of DRI-Smelter-deS-BOF, despite similar EAF-smelters being used for various applications of Fe-Ti and Fe-Ni processes. The latest progress is that several pilot-scale and industrial-scale EAF-smelters with reducing capability are planned for construction within next several years and low-grade Australia iron ores are certainly to be employed as basic feedstocks for H2-based route of DRI-Smelter-deS-BOF.

Sep 18, 2023

By Milton E. Wadsworth, T. D. Chatwin

Bulk density variations can usually be minimized by properly mixing the material before moisture measurement. The measuring of moisture on material being with- drawn directly from storage bins requires some form of bulk density correction. In Bethlehem's pellet plants continuous automatic bulk density correction and uniform feed-rate control are obtained with Bethlehem's patented Bin Level Control System. With this sys- tem a single probe, suspended or inserted in the bin, senses whether material is at the proper level in the bin and automatically regulates filter speed to control the filter-cake discharge rate to maintain this level. The level of concentrate in the filter-cake bin can thereby be controlled to within ± 1/2 in. of the point of contact between the concentrate and the probe. Material thickness on the conveyor does not have to be controlled accurately and mix compositions can vary widely as long as they do not contain variable amounts of water-soluble electrolytes. In sinter plants, errors caused by changes in normal feed rate and bed height are minimized by counter-weights that permit the free-floating to maintain a uniform contact pressure on the mix. Large changes in mix resistance can be taken care of either by resetting the control point or by adjusting the calibration control.

Jan 9, 1968

By Charles H. Fulton

There are comparatively few accurate data on the melting-or the freezing-point temperature of metallurgical slags, or on related physical phenomena, such as fluidity near the melting-point, specific heat, latent heat, etc. With the exception of the work of H. 0. Hofman,' and some older work by R. Akerman, P. Gredt, and H. M. Howe, no information is available that is of direct interest to the metallurgist. Hofman's valuable work is the only one that refers to slags produced in the metallurgy of copper and lead. The classic work of J. H. L. Vogt,2 who views slags from the standpoint of physical mixtures (solutions in which the entities are minerals), has opened up a new field in the study of slags, and has placed the investigation of such properties as melting-temperatures, etc., on a rational basis. The recent work of A. L. Day, E. T. Allen, and W. I?. White, of the Carnegie Institution, at Washington, and of European investigators3 on certain systems of silicate minerals confirms the value of the investigation of silicate series from this standpoint, and it is my aim to apply this method to metallurgical slags, in order to gain exact data of value in metallurgy. The work recorded in the present paper is the result of an investigation of reverberatory-furnace slags made for a Western smelting company to determine exactly the influence of change in composition, within comparatively narrow limits, on the melting-point. For a general discussion concerning the mineralogical character of slags and the principles on which this investigation is based, reference should be made to other work: for the subject is too large to be stated in this paper, except very briefly in the following outline:

Jan 1, 1913

By A. H. Lang

"The Cordilleran region of western Canada includes most of British Columbia and the Yukon and pares of Alberta and the Northwest Territories. The western part of this region was for about 50 years the principal mineral producing area of the Dominion. It lost this distinction in 1907 when production from the mines of the Canadian Shield took the lead, but it continues to provide about 15 percent of the total Canadian production. In 1945 the total mineral production of British Columbia and the Yukon was valued at $65,302,900, of which about 80 percent was derived from metals.This paper is intended to serve as an introduction co the more derailed Cordilleran papers. Part I includes a brief synopsis of the complex geology and diverse types of mineralization in the region and Parr II collates the main structural principles exemplified in the derailed papers, and draws some conclusions regarding the application of this information to prospecting."

Jan 1, 1954

By Frank E. Chase

The Harris No. 1 Mine, located in Boone County, WV, has been longwalling the Eagle Coalbed for over 30 years. Harris has experienced numerous interactions associated with the extensive room-and-pillar and longwall mining operations which have been conducted in the overlying No. 2 Gas Coalbed. The problems have included roof falls, excessive rib sloughage, and gateroad and bleeder entry closure. A detailed evaluation of the multiple seam experiences at Harris No. 1 Mine was conducted as part of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) nation-wide multiple seam mining case history data base. One observation from the Harris gateroad case histories was that smaller, critically loaded, upper seam pillars seemed to cause more severe ground conditions than did wider pillars. The LaModel program was used to investigate this supposition, and the results confirmed that "critical" sized pillars do transmit the highest amounts of stress to adjacent seams. In addition, the data suggest that the probability of a major multiple seam mining interaction increases when the depth of cover is 1,000 ft or greater and when the Eagle seam pillars have a Analysis of Longwall Pillar stability factor less than 1.50.

Jan 1, 2005

By S. Brunauer

The hydration of portland cement is treated as a chemical reaction and the changes in matter, in energy and the rate of change of the process are discussed, Portland cement is a mixture of four major and at least as many important minor constituents. In the hydration process, the four major compounds (trical-cium silicate, dicalcium silicate, tricalcium alumi-nate and tetracalcium aluminoferrite), plus gypsum and water form five or six new compounds. In spite o the great complexity of the reaction, considerable progress has been made in its understanding, primarily with the help of such research tools as X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy. The rate of the reaction can be followed by direct and indirect methods of measurements. The effects o composition, particle size (or specific surface), temperature and water-cement ratio on the rates of hydration are discussed. The hydration of portland cement is a chemical reaction accompanied by such highly important physical phenomena as heat evolution, setting and hardening. It is a vast and complex subject, on which hundreds of papers have been published. At the time of the writing of this paper, in October 1962, a two-volume book, which alone contains dozens of papers pertaining to cement hydration appeared in print.' The present paper deals with a few aspects of this vast subject, and the selection was not easy. The work reported here deals with some of the most recent investigations in the field. In any chemical reaction, the physical chemist is primarily interested in three things: changes in matter, changes in energy and the rate of change of the process or the speed of the reaction. This is true also of the chemical reaction between portland cement and water, and all three aspects of the reaction will be discussed. These three aspects are of vital interest to the engineer as well. Portland cement is not a cementing material — the hydration products, the new materials which form in the reaction, have the cementing action. The energy changes manifest themselves in a considerable evolution of heat, which may be useful or harmful. It is useful, for example, in winter concreting, but in very large concrete structures like dams, a large evolution of heat, which cannot be easily dissipated, may produce distress in the structure. Primarily for such a purpose was the Type IV or low heat portland cement developed. The speed of the chemical reaction is important because it determines the time of setting and hardening. The initial reaction must be slow enough to permit placing of the concrete before setting occurs. On the other hand, after the placing of concrete it is often highly desirable to obtain as rapid chemical reaction as possible. For this purpose the Type 111 or high early strength portland cement was developed. CHANGES IN MATTER Portland Cement: In a basic investigation, before one begins to study a reaction, one either knows the quantities and compositions of the starting materials, the reactants, or one determines them. This is obvious; the chemist expresses the changes in matter that occur in a reaction by a chemical equation, which has the quantities and compositions of the reactants on the left side of the equation and the quantities and compositions of the reaction products on the right side. The first question is then what to put on the left side of the equation in the reaction between portland cement and water? It is not very easy to answer this question. Portland cement is not a single chemical compound but a mixture of many compounds. Four of these are considered the major compounds, and at least four of the minor compounds also play important roles in the hydration reaction. In order to avoid complicating matters, the present discussion will be restricted primarily to the four major compounds, which constitute usually more than 90% of a portland cement. The relative amounts of these compounds vary from cement to cement. Actually not only the amounts but the compositions of these constituents also vary to some extent, but the variation in composition of the individual components will be neglected for simplicity.

Jan 1, 1963

By Paul D. V. Manning

MAGNESIUM is an exceedingly strategic material but the importance of its production at the time this war started was not realized. Our Government then suddenly became much alive to the need of a tremendous increase in magnesium output, and became a participator in the industry. In this paper an attempt will be made to given an over-all picture of the industry as it has been, and is being, developed. The present war is giving a great acceleration to the use of lighter metals. Development of facilities for production of great tonnages of aluminum and magnesium is bound to bring about some interesting changes in later peace times because costs will be low and production capacities high. As our knowledge of the metallurgy of magnesium alloys increases, this metal will become of vital peacetime importance and will be used in ways we do not now imagine. Household refrigerators, furniture, automobiles, even houses will all be lightened through the use of magnesium.

Jan 1, 1943

By Raymond E. Healy

Circuit samples from the HBMS concentrator were assayed for l5elements, and image analysis was done to determine the modal quantities, grain size distributions and liberations of the minerals. Material balancing was done on these data to determine distributions of the minerals in each concentrator stream. The ore was mined during the waning phase of mining and is diluted with backfilled copper smelter slag. The mill feed grades 1.0 wt% Cu and 1.8 wt% Zn. The slag silicate phases contain approximately 1.5 wt% Cu and 6.5 wt% Zn; therefore the Cu and Zn head grades due to chalcopyrite and sphalerite, are only 0.9 wt% Cu and 1.2 wt% Zn, respectively. The recovery of Cu in the Cu-concentrate (Cu-conc.) is only 77.5 %, whereas that of chalcopyrite is 89.2 %. Similarly, the recovery of Zn in the Zn-concentrate (Zn-conc.) is only 40.2 %, whereas that of sphalerite is 71.0 %. The slag accounts for approximately 60 % of the Cu, and 85 % of the Zn in the tailings. The main loss of chalcopyrite is as unliberated grains to the tailings, and the main loss of sphalerite is as free grains to the Cu-concentrate and as unliberated grains to the Cu-concentrate and tailings. Approximately 85 % of the chalcopyrite and sphalerite lost to the tailings. accounting for 8 % and 10 % of the respective minerals in the concentrator feed, occur as middling and sub-middling grains. Extremely fine regrinding would be required to liberate these minerals.

Jan 1, 1989

By J. P. Pritchard, J. T. Pierce, O. G. Slay

This paper discusses the results of a technology-evaluation program to ascertain the feasibility of a piotornask-photoresist technology developed for fabrication of multiple-layer thin-film superconductive circuitry. The uehicle selected for this evaluation was a 120-bil associative data processor requiring a set of nine photomasks to define a similar number of patterned material layers of lead, tin, and polymer insulation. A total circuit area of 4 sq in. involved 2500 actitle and 12,000 passive crossings. Several short-free, electrically continuous specimens were satisfactorily completed under this program. Problems encountered in the preparation and use of the requi-ed set of Photomasks are discussed, as also are the problets of providing suitable external connections. A major retarding factor in the development of the superconducting thin-film cryotron technology for many years was the absence of batch fabrication means yielding necessary device density and count per substrate for practical applications. Early workers in the field desired only limited numbers of devices to permit careful study of discrete devices and representative circuitry integrating logic and memory capabilities. For these purposes mask stencils could be formed to selectively control the placement of materials, sequentially vapor-deposited in vacuum, to form the multilayer structure. In general a distinct pattern was required for each material layer; therefore, mechanical provisions were required to change not only the material source, but the patterning mask as well, before each deposition. All deposition steps were preferably performed in a single evacuation of the deposition chamber. Thus the means for storing, transporting, and registering masks and sources with respect to the substrate existed and were operated within the vacuum environment. In the authors' experience, the approach was and remains serviceable for preliminary device study, but was not extensible to an economical manufacturing method by virtue of the difficulties inherent in mask stencil preparation and use, and the capital investment implicit in the mechanization requirements. Since the commercial attraction of the cryotron technology stems principally from its potential for economical batch fabrication, the authors' program has placed major emphasis on fabrication methods. A highly useful method has evolved through adaptation

Jan 1, 1967

By Alexander Malahoff

An international research team working through the Hawai?i Undersea Research Laboratory (HURL) undertook a bold challenge to explore the chemistry, geology, mineral formation and superheated hydrothermal vents of the Kermadec Island Arc. With the mothership, R/V Ka?imikai-o-Kanaloa, scientists from six research institutions explored the active submarine volcanoes stretching over a line of volcanoes 1,000 miles long between Samoa and New Zealand. The expedition left Hawaii on the 18th of March 2005 and returned on the 5th of August having covered a distance of 10,000 miles between Hawaii and New Zealand. Scientists from the USA, New Zealand and Germany used the HURL submersibles, Pisces IV and Pisces V, as well as the remotely-operated vehicle RCV-150, aboard the R/V Ka?imikai-o-Kanaloa to dive into active volcanoes to water depths of 2,000 meters. Scientists from New Zealand, the USA and Germany conducted 41 dives on the previously unexplored (from manned submersibles) submarine volcanoes. Ten active volcanoes were explored during this time. Hundreds of specimens of new and unusual marine life, water chemistry, extremophile microorganisms, mineral formations and volcanic rocks were collected during this expedition with the two submersibles and the ROV. Bizarre natural events, such as the oozing of hot liquid sulfur from the ocean floor onto the skids of the submersible were observed. Carbon dioxide gas was observed profusely streaming into the seawater from the volcanoes, making these one of the greatest contributions to hot house gasses entering the atmosphere.

Jan 1, 2005

By I. O. Flores, A. Anani, H. Li

Current technological advancement has increased the exploitation of deeper ore bodies using underground methods. In certain cases, the mineral deposit starts near the surface and continues deep within the earth's crust. Such deposits are best mined with both underground and surface methods. Two main techniques are used to determine the optimal transition depth from surface to underground - a disintegrated approach and an integrated approach. Both methods have limitations in their use to determine the optimal transition depth. The objective of this research is to investigate the conditions in which an integrated approach to the transition depth problem is superior to a disintegrated approach. Three binary integer linear programming models are developed for this purpose: a surface and underground model for the disintegrated instance and an integrated model. A case study is performed to validate the models, with a comparative sensitivity analysis to obtain operational insights.

Sep 1, 2021

Previous published papers by Fraser (1), Hey (2), and Stillwell (3), have given respectively, details of:-1. The practice in the pilot plant operated at Zeehan for the treatment of ores from the Rosebery field.2. The design, based largely on the experience gained at Zeehan, of the concentrator built at Rosebery.3. The nature of the orebodies of the zinc-lead lode at Rosebery.Changes and developments, at the Rosebery concentrator, since operations commenced, are now described with particular reference to recent practice.Three concentrates are produced, viz.: a copper, a lead, and a zinc concentrate. The current flow-sheet is shown in Fig. 1. Typical concentrate assays are...THE OREThe ore treated is derived from the Rosebery and Hercules Mines and is, milled in the ratio of, approximately, two parts of the former to one of the latter. The ores from the two mines may be considered as being similar in general character, although the Rosebery ore contains more pyrite. It is from this mine that any increased tonnage is expected. The ore is a mass of fine-grained, intimately associated sulphides, with practically no coarse...

Jan 1, 1949

By Oren C. Baptist, Carlon S. Land, Eliot J. White

The water sensitivity of the oil - gas - producing sandstones in three fields in the Patrick Draw area of southwestern Wyoming was estimated by laboratory testing . The tests used to estimate sensitivity , which is a measure of the loss of well productivity if the producing formation is invaded by fresh water , are : Porosity ; permeability to gas , water , and brines ; saturation characteristics with air displacing water from the samples and by mercury injection ; and identification of clay minerals by X - ray diffraction . Laboratory results indicate that the degree of water sensitivity of the sands in the Patrick Draw, Table Rock , and Desert Springs fields vary , in that order , from moderately sensitive to highly sensitive . The main cause of the sensitivity appears to be the movement of fine particles in the pores , but the swelling of a small amount of an expandible clay mineral may also contribute to the permeability reduction observed in the samples . Laboratory results further indicate that the permeability of the sands to fresh water is seriously reduced if they are first flushed with sodium chloride brine ; calcium chloride brine is less harmful to the sands than sodium chloride brine . The low original permeability of the oil sand in the Patrick Draw field , together with its moderate sensitivity , indicate that the rate of water injection for the secondary recovery of oil will be low . Limited field experience in two pilot - injection wells confirms this prediction .

Jan 1, 1964

By Fun-Den Wang

In underground coal mines, three types of roof failure (2)*, tensile, local, and shear, occur in the development entries and in room-and-pillar extraction areas. Most of the tensile failures in the roof at the center of the mine opening as well as those local failures due to fracture or jointing can be controlled by roof bolts, trusses, and timbering. However, control of the shear failure at the sides of the roof (or the cutter-roof caving) has not been successful with ordinary roof control methods. The only effective method, when there is an indication of cutter-roof caving, is to use cribs, which are costly and make transportation, ventilation, and production difficult. Frequently, the operator allows the cutter roof to cave and then cleans it up rather than trying to stop it. This shear type of roof failure is often associated with large areas which may progressively involve several hundred feet of roof caving at one occurrence. At times, this shear failure occurs suddenly with little or no warning. This can result in buried equipment and great danger to the safety of personnel. This shear failure may be due to one or more of the following: high stress concentrations at the corner of the roof from (1) high horizontal to vertical load ratio, (2) orthotropic elastic properties of rock and coal, (3) greater stiffness of the immediate roof layer than of the secondary roof layer, (4) viscoelastic behavior of rock and coal, and (5) geometry and material properties of the geologic setting. Removing or reducing the high stress concentration should improve the roof stability. The structural analyses of models of two typical

Jan 1, 1972