Search Documents

By P. P. Reichert, L. S. Gournay, N. T. Burdine

An investigation of equivalent pore entry radii in typical samples of petroleum reservoir rock and the pore volume associated with each value of pore entry radius has been made. Theoretical discussions together with experimental procedures for obtaining pore entry radii and the distribution of pore volume with pore entry radii are presented. Experimental results on a number of core samples, along with typical distribution curves, are shown. Data on the per cent of the pore volume filled by mercury at a pressure of 1500 psi are included. The results of re-runs of samples, made possible by regenerative apparatus, show the repeatability of the data and indicate the amount of physical change in the samples by mercury penetration. Theoretical equations for calculating permeability from pore size distribution data were derived and the results of such calculations are compared with measured gas permeability data. The effect of the shape, surface area, and weight of the sample on the pore size distribution of reservoir rocks was investigated experimentally. Mercury capillary pressure curves are compared with those obtained by the porous diaphragm method using pas to displace water. Standard core analysis techniques, in general, lead to quantities which are statistical averages of the varying properties of the samples under examination. Although such statistical information has real value in predicting the gross performance of porous bodies. it fails to provide fundamental information concerning the properties of the porous medium itself or any processes which may be occurring in it. For example, a gas permeability measurement on a core sample is an indirect way of determining an average pore radius for that particular sample. Since there are many combinations of pore radii that will give the same radius. and, hence, the same permeability, no information is obtained on the pore size distribution. Furthermore, similar values in permeability do not imply similarity in other properties of a porous medium. For instance, it is possible to have two core samples with identical permeability which would have different residual oil contents at the end of an air-oil drive, or even different amounts of interstitial water. It has been recognized for some time by the petroleum industry that a determination of pore size distribution for porous reservoir rocks offered promise of increased understanding of fundamental flow processes in the porous matrix. and therefore of petroleum res- ervoir performance in general. There have recently been published several methods for determination of pore size distribution in porous materials. A report is given here of the modifications in equipment and technique required to adapt one of these methods to measurements on petroleum reservoir core samples. Although only a few correlations or applications of the method are available for presentation at this time, the technique is brought to the attention of the industry so that the opinions and experience of others with this or similar techniques may be exchanged. It seems possible that the method will have wide application in the future. METHOD There are three general methods which may be employed to measure the pore size distribution in naturally occurring rock formations. One method1 is based on experimentally determined adsorption isotherms for calculating the surface area of the porous medium. Knowing the surface area and the pore volume, a rough estimate of the pore radius can be made. Since this method depends on the thickness and uniformity of the adsorbed layer, the validity of the results would be highly questionable. A second method utilizes capillary pressure data obtained by static dis-

Jan 1, 1950

By B. G. D. Smart

An understanding of the nature of yield zones surrounding coal mine excavations is fundamental to the design of mine support systems. Various methods have been designed for investigation of underground rock masses and an extensometric technique, the Magnetic Rod Extensometer, has been developed to overcome inherent design limitations in existing equipment of this type. This paper refers to the prototype form of the extensometer and details changes designed to overcome a variety of drawbacks indicated by routine use of the equipment. The principal change has been one of manual to computerised data acquisition and presentation in the laboratory phase of the system. This has dramatically reduced the time taken to process underground measurements and produce numerical and graphical results. The revised Magnetic Rod Extensometer represents an integrated instrumentation system that combines speed and accuracy in all areas of data handling.

Jan 1, 1984

By Philip W. Moen

It is with sincere regret that the members of the Institute will have heard of the death, on March 17th last, at Terre Haute, Ind., of Professor Charles 0. Thompson, A.M., Ph.D., President of the Rose Polytechnic Institute of that city, and for many years pre viously the head of the Worcester County (Mass.) Free Institute of Industrial Science, and in 1881 and 1882 one of the managers of this society. To us he was chiefly known by the excellent character of the work which he had performed, as a recognized leader among the technical educators of the country. He was a constant, and interested atten dant at our meetings, seeking to acquaint himself not less with all that was noteworthy in the practical attainments and developments of the branches of industry represented by our membership, than with such such facts as would be of service to him in shaping or guiding a wise course of instruction in the institutions of which he had charge. We shall not soon forget him, or the genial courtesy of his manner, or his ready words and thoughtful comments. Charles Oliver Thompson was born September 25th, 1836, at East Windsor Hill, Conn., where his father, Rev. William Thomp son, D.D., was professor in the Connecticut Theological Seminary, since removed to Hartford. The son was fitted for college under the late Paul A. Chadbourne, and entered Dartmouth College in 1854. He was graduated in 1858 with honors. In all the studies of his course he had maintained a high rank, but showed marked proficiency in chemistry and mechanical philosophy. In 1861 he received the degree of A.M., followed by that of Ph.D. from his own college in 1879, and from Williams in 1880. In September, 1858, the year of his graduation, he became principal of the Peacham Academy, Vt., remaining in that position until November of 1864, though during that period he devoted several months to practical work as a surveyor and civil engineer. Thus his experiences were developing the qualities which, later on, fitted him to carry out so successfully the plans of the thoughtful projectors of a new system of technical education, along a path before untrodden, but which the test of time and the indisputable proof of success have shown to be both wise and fruitful.

Jan 1, 1886

By W. W. Schmittroth, A. Y. Bethune

The commercial analysis of Special High-Grade zinc usually involves the determination of lead, iron, copper and cadmium as impurities in the base metal. Over the past 20 years, as the result of metallurgical improvements in the art of producing Special High-Grade zinc metal there has taken place a gradual exclusion of almost all extraneous elements, and the few that do remain in the final product have been virtually reduced to the vanishing point. Thousands of tons of zinc are now commercially produced annually and made available to the trade, in which impurities are present only in the order of 0.0010 per cent or less and the sum total of all impurities does not exceed 0.0025 per cent. To such zinc the term "super-purity" might well be applied without undue exaggeration. The techniques used for production control and final analysis of Special High-Grade zinc by means of emission spectra in the laboratories of the electrolytic zinc plant of the Sullivan Mining Co. are based on the premise that self-electrodes are to be preferred over all other forms for the examination of the zinc in question. Furthermore, after a survey of the literature and considerable experimental work,' it was decided that the spectrographic method of internal control, the principle of which was first announced by Gerlach,2 using a modification of the high-voltage alternating-current arc source introduced by Duffendack and Thompson,3 with the calibration of each photographic plate as recommended by Wolfe,4 would yield the most accurate and reproducible results. Self-electrodes were chosen in order to make use of one of the unique advantages inherent in spectrographic analysis; namely, the rapid and almost effortless detection of elements other than those being quantified by the analyst; or conversely, the proof that the zinc is free from such impurities if no spectral line of the suspected element appears. This fact was verified for certain elements, and will be discussed later. Carbon electrodes impregnated or packed with zinc salts chemically prepared from the zinc to be assayed were avoided for a number of reasons. First, the chemical manipulation was another time-consuming step, which increased the chances for contamination. Second, none of the common zinc salts, such as the chloride, nitrate or sulphate, yielded reproducible results under our conditions, nor did the spectral line of the impurity appear as readily in the low concentrations as when using zinc metal. Third, no commercial carbon, except the very expensive, was pure enough to use with this grade of zinc and the continued time, effort and expense incurred in the purification of carbon were not desirable. The use of special High-Grade zinc self-electrodes introduces certain complications with regard to obtaining satisfactory excitation conditions, because it seems necessary to raise the temperature

Jan 1, 1949

By J. H. Jackson, R. B. Fischer

VERY little is known about the properties of relatively pure refractory metals in the cast state since these metals are customarily made by powder-metallurgy methods. Recently, the development of the vacuum arc-melting furnace has made possible the study of large, sound ingots of cast molybdenum. The ductility of molybdenum, at room temperature, may vary considerably. Often the brittle state depreciates the utility of molybdenum, even for the material prepared by powder-metallurgy techniques. At the outset of this program, it was felt that if the causes of brittleness were to be determined it might be possible to reduce the difficulties met in the working of molybdenum. Also, the problem of producing strong, fusion weldrnents of molybdenum might be solved. The conditions required to produce ductile molybdenum by the powder-metallurgy technique are reasonably well known. A fibrous or elongated-grain structure has good ductility although this property is probably directional. The equiaxed structure obtained in fully recrystallized molybdenum has been considered to be brittle. The reasons for this behavior of molybdenum have not been established. The preparation of cast molybdenum ingots by the vacuum-arc method was described by Parke and Ham.' By this method, ingots weighing up to 250 Ib were produced." Parke and Ham1 found that molybdenum ingots containing more than approximately 0.0025 pct oxygen could not be hot forged. On the other hand, they found that fully deoxidized cast molybdenum, containing up to 0.06 pct carbon, could be hot forged. However, the as-cast ingots containing either carbon or oxygen were brittle at room temperature. Parke and Ham,1 Woodside,3 and Zapffe, Landgraf, and Worden4 noted the inter-granular precipitation of oxide or carbide in cast molybdenum. This study—part of an extensive program on mo-lybdenum—had the following objectives: (1) To investigate the causes for the brittleness of cast molybdenum at room temperature, (2) to investigate the means for improving the ductility of cast molybdenum at room temperature, and (3) to add to the knowledge of cast molybdenum and of cast metals in general.

Jan 1, 1951

By H. F. Walther

Basic electric-are furnace steel production mainly involves the use of two separate types of slags. The first, known as the "melt down" or oxidizing slag, which is in most cases removed from the furnace mechanically, and the heat finished under the second or deoxidizing slag, which is commonly known as the "finishing slag.'' The melt down slag is formed by the addition of lime or limestone to the charge, which combines with the oxides formed during the melting period and the product of any bottom erosion that may take place.

Jan 1, 1935

By H. F. Walther

Basic electric-are furnace steel production mainly involves the use of two separate types of slags. The first, known as the "melt down" or oxidizing slag, which is in most cases removed from the furnace mechanically, and the heat finished under the second or deoxidizing slag, which is commonly known as the "finishing slag.'' The melt down slag is formed by the addition of lime or limestone to the charge, which combines with the oxides formed during the melting period and the product of any bottom erosion that may take place.

Jan 1, 1935

By E. C. Houston, R. A. Laurence, F. A. W. Davis, L. L. McMurray, H. S. Rankin

This paper is coodensed from several reports by members of the staff of the Minerals Testing Laboratory of the Tennessee Valley Authority, on a series of experimental tests in the beneficiation of barite of the Valley area. These experiments were conducted upon a large number of samples taken from several mines in three different districts. The area contains numerous producing deposits, nearly all of which are hampered by the high iron and silica content of the ores. Because of the small difference in specific gravity between the iron oxide and the barite, a gravity separation is generally poor. The removal of the iron thus offers a special problem. Some of the operators have turned to magnetic separation to meet the shipping requirements for less than one per cent iron. The present experiments were conducted to determine the application of decrepitation or flotation in simplifying the concentration of the barite by removing the iron oxide and silica in one operation. Practically all the barite marketed in the area has been as "off-color" crude. The bleaching studies were made to determine the bleach-ability of the ores to alleviate this inferior grading, placing them on the market as bleached barite. Geology Barite has been produced at many places in the Tennessee Valley area, and prospects and minor deposits are known at many other places, but practically all the production of barite in the Valley has been from the Sweetwater district of East Tennessee. Other leading areas of former production are the Tazewell-Russell counties areas of southwest Virginia, the Del Rio-Stackhouse district of East Tennessee and western North Carolina, and the Fall Branch district of upper East Tennessee. The areas described in this paper are those from which samples used in the concentration tests were obtained.

Jan 1, 1942

By H. S. Rankin, F. A. W. Davis, R. A. Laurence, L. L. McMurray, E. C. Houston

This paper is coodensed from several reports by members of the staff of the Minerals Testing Laboratory of the Tennessee Valley Authority, on a series of experimental tests in the beneficiation of barite of the Valley area. These experiments were conducted upon a large number of samples taken from several mines in three different districts. The area contains numerous producing deposits, nearly all of which are hampered by the high iron and silica content of the ores. Because of the small difference in specific gravity between the iron oxide and the barite, a gravity separation is generally poor. The removal of the iron thus offers a special problem. Some of the operators have turned to magnetic separation to meet the shipping requirements for less than one per cent iron. The present experiments were conducted to determine the application of decrepitation or flotation in simplifying the concentration of the barite by removing the iron oxide and silica in one operation. Practically all the barite marketed in the area has been as "off-color" crude. The bleaching studies were made to determine the bleach-ability of the ores to alleviate this inferior grading, placing them on the market as bleached barite. Geology Barite has been produced at many places in the Tennessee Valley area, and prospects and minor deposits are known at many other places, but practically all the production of barite in the Valley has been from the Sweetwater district of East Tennessee. Other leading areas of former production are the Tazewell-Russell counties areas of southwest Virginia, the Del Rio-Stackhouse district of East Tennessee and western North Carolina, and the Fall Branch district of upper East Tennessee. The areas described in this paper are those from which samples used in the concentration tests were obtained.

Jan 1, 1942

By Malcolm V. Lowry

At Balmat in northern New York State, the St. Joseph Lead Co.'s 2100-tpd zinc mining and milling operation is utilizing a unique thickener in conjunction with conventional crushing, grinding and flotation methods. From 1930 through 1962, zinc concentrates went directly from flotation to the filtering, drying and loading facilities, all of which had to operate 24 hr per day. Wide fluctuations in tonnage also had to be accommodated due to variations in the grade of ore. Many problems were thus encountered in filtering and drying, but the cost of installing a conventional, large diameter thickener could never be justified. In 1963, after thorough investigation, an unconventional thickener that is unusual in several respects was installed at Balmat. The tank depth is 16 ft instead of the normal 8 ft. The rakes are raised and lowered by having the main drive gear located on a movable platform. Automatic controls are programmed to raise the drive platform and rakes during one shift of storage. During the next two shifts of withdrawal, the controls are programmed to lower the drive platform and rakes.

Jan 5, 1966

By Ying-Chu Hoh, Renato G. Bautista

The chemically based models previously developed to describe and predict the distribution coefficients and separation factors for several different single and multicomponent metal extraction systems are presented in a more general form in this paper. The degree of formation of the aqueous phase inorganic metal complexes, the extraction mechanism of the complexes, and the equilibrium constant for the extraction reaction are used in the development of the models. The concept has been successfully applied to extraction systems where the organic solvent extracts an ionic species and where the organic solvent extracts only the neutral species. In addition, a model to describe a system where the organic solvent is extracting several extractable species has been derived on the same basis

Jan 1, 1981

By Carl A. Holley

Agglomeration is very closely identified with the mining industry. Ores must be crushed finer and finer to separate minerals from gauge and the fine ore concentrates must be agglomerated so they can be handled for further processing. This paper reviews each type of agglomeration device and summarizes the areas of usage for each type of agglomerator.

Jan 1, 1980

By R. P. Rothwell

Jan 1, 1885

By H. F. Easter

(San Francisco Meeting, September, 1915) THE lead department of the El Paso Smelting Works at El Paso, Tex., is operated strictly oil a custom basis. The ores treated are drawn from the surrounding territory, comprising New Mexico, Arizona, western Texas, and northern Mexico. Ores received from the last-named section originally amounted to a very large tonnage, but of recent years have dwindled into comparative insignificance so far as this plant is concerned. This has been clue partly to the establishment of a lead-smelting plant at Chihuahua, which is much closer than El Paso to most of the important mines, and partly to the recent revolutionary troubles in Mexico. There are no mines of either lead or copper in the immediate vicinity of El Paso. In general, it may be said that the lead-ore supply of recent years has been uncertain and precarious, with a general tendency toward an excess of silica and a shortage of iron. This latter requirement has been met in large part by the use in El Paso lead furnaces of considerable amounts of roasted heady copper matte from the Chihuahua smeltery and of converter slag from the El Paso converters. These two materials, coupled with complex lead-copper ores from Bisbee, Ariz., have introduced into the lead-smelting operations a most unusual amount of copper, which has had an important bearing upon the smelting practice of the plant. This matter will be discussed later. The ore, loaded in either box cars or gondolas, enters the storage yard on four tracks elevated about 8 ft. above the ground. As all unloading is clone by hand, unloading platforms at the height of the car floor parallel the tracks on each side to afford a runway for wheelbarrows. At frequent intervals these lengthwise platforms are joined together by others running crosswise to facilitate the distribution of the ores evenly over the beds, which are located below and between the tracks. At present much of the bedding space formerly used for lead ores is given over to the copper department, but 20 bins of various sizes are retained for the use of the lead furnaces and the Huntington & Heberlein roasting plant. The largest of these holds about 1,000 tons, while the smallest holds not over

Jan 8, 1915

By D. L., Hayes

THE concentration of zinc ore in Wisconsin is a comparatively simple process, although it presents problems that must be overcome in an efficient manner in such a way that installation and operating costs are low. As the ore deposits are small, the first cost of the concentrating plant must be low; while the low margin of profit makes it necessary to have the minimum operating costs. The original mills were copied from those of the Joplin district, as most of them were built and operated by Joplin millmen. These served the purpose well; they made a clean concentrate, which was the chief requirement at that time, as most 'of the mines were' considerably 'richer than the average at the present time, and wages and supplies were also considerably lower. ' The apparatus used at present has changed very little in principle. . The grizzly opening has gradually been increased to 12 in. and sometimes no grizzly 'is used. The crusher, gradually grew in size, the largest crusher has -an opening of about 24 by 13 in. and a 7/8-in. throw on the. eccentric shaft.

Jan 1, 1921

The Jeffrey Company Opens Branch in Seattle The Jeffrey Manufacturing Co. of Columbus, Ohio, announces the re-opening of its Northwestern Branch Office at Seattle, Wash., and the appointment of Mr. Percy E. Wright, Consulting Mechanical Engineer, as District Manager for Oregon, Washington, Alaska, British Columbia and Alberta. Mr. Wright, who has been in the Northwest since 1910, and whose connection with the Jeffrey company dates back to 1902, has' had a wide and varied experience and training in the handling of the Jeffrey line which will enable him to be of great assistance to customers in solving their elevating, conveying and transmission problems. Trade Catalogs To a majority of the public, the name 'DuPont suggests military powder-munitions of war. The DuPont Products Book A-430 (April, 1916) lists 251 distinct commodities made. and sold by this company, many of which are far removed from destructive work. Mining men are fully cognizant of the need for explosives in constructive work, but they may be surprised to know that side by side with the powder and dynamite this company manufactures such peaceful articles as substitute leather, combs and collar buttons. The substitute for leather is Fabrikoid, varying in weight from a quality light enough for bookbinding to one heavy enough for trunks and automobiles, and the combs and collar buttons (with scores of other articles) are made from Pyralin. The book also contains a long list of chemicals, and a shorter list of special products and miscellaneous materials such as charcoal, wood flour and saltpeter. The Jeffrey Manufacturing Co. of Columbus, Ohio, making elevating, conveying, crushing, screening and power transmission machinery, has just issued its. latest Bulletin, No. 177, :featuring self-propelling wagon and truck loaders for handling crushed stone, sand, gravel, clinker, coke, etc. These machines are described as having a capacity of 1 to 1 ½ cu. yd. of material per minute, with power to load crushed stone maximum size pieces through 3 ½ -in. ring and to load trucks or wagons in 3 or 4 min. The self-propelling device is designed to enable one man to operate the loader as it is fed into the pile, and to move the machine about under its own power.

Jan 7, 1916

By AIME AIME

Award of a Gold Medal : to the Institute. The Jury of Awards of the Jamestown Ter-Centennial Exposition has conferred a gold medal, the highest distinction within its power,. on the American Institute of Mining Engineers for the excellence of its publications during the past decade. ; A half-tone photographic reproduction of both sides of the medal is given in the accompanying illustration.

Jan 7, 1908

By R. G. Garlick, M. Garfinkle

It was observed for several bcc metal crystals that the Knoop hardness anisotropy was dependent essentially on the direction of the lung axis of the indentor alone and not on the plane of indentation. The generality of this observation was tested for an fcc md an hcp metal and an ionic crystal. For cubic crystals, this observation was valid; for the hcp structure, however, the planes of indentation did have an effect on the hardness anisotropy, although this was not nearly as significant as the direction of indentation. Because the direction of indentation is the only significant crystal-lographic parameter necessary to describe the hardness anisotropy, it is possible to represent the anisotropy of single crystals on the standard stereographic triangle. THE commonly observed1, 2 periodic variation of indentation hardness with crystallographic direction on the high-symmetry planes of various single crystals has been inadequately related to the physical or mechanical properties of the crystals examined. In fact, the hardness anisotropy curves for the various planes of a particular metal crystal, as is illustrated in Fig. 1, are uncorrelated and appear in the literature3, 4 as unrelated observations. Attempts to correlate hardness anisotropy curves with specific physical properties can be generally divided into either mechanistic or nonmechanistic approaches. A nonmechanistic approach would be to devise a mathematical expression that could describe the various hardness anisotropy curves. Such a relation could then be compared with the known anisotropy of various physical properties to determine which contribute to the observed hardness anisotropy. No such mathematical expression has been found in the literature.

Jan 1, 1969

By C. E. Reistle, G. L. Nye

The East Texas field is in Smith, Rusk, Gregg, Upshur and Cherokee counties, Texas. The discovery well was completed Sept. 8, 1930, near the eastern limit of the field. Within less than one year the new field became the dominant factor in the world production of crude oil. On Aug. 16, 1931, eleven months after completion of the discovery well, there were 1644 wells in the field, and the average daily production was 584,475 bbl. Since that time the number of wells has increased to 8195 on Oct. 1, 1933, and the field has produced 385,979,691 bbl. of oil. The geology of the East Texas field has been discussed by Lahee,1 Levorsen,2 Minor and Hanna3 and others, and it will not be discussed in detail here. The field is a structure of the monocline type on the westward dipping homocline between the Sabine uplift and the East Texas geosyncline. Production is obtained from the Woodbine group, which has been truncated and then sealed by the Austin chalk, which rests unconformably upon it. The oil-saturated part of the sand lies bettween a sub-sea depth of 3050 ft. on the east side of the field, where the Woodbine sand stops and the Austin chalk rests directly upon older formations, and a sub-sea depth of 3320 ft., which was the average depth of the water table in the sand at the time the field was discovered. The field is about 40 miles long and has an average width of approximately 4 1/2 miles. The area within the proven limits of the field is close to 116,580 acres and the normal Woodbine water underlies nearly 62,000 acres on the western side of the field at the present time. The field is unusual in several respects: (1) the tremendous size of the reservoir system and the quantity of oil in place; (2) the large area of the oil and water contact, which makes water movement possible into the oil-bearing part of the structure; (3) the absence of free gas within the main producing sand of the field. Changes in the reservoir pressure during the production history of the field have been greatly affected by

Jan 1, 1934

By Frederic Benard

PRIoR to 1936, the Ontario Refining Co. received all incoming blister copper from The International Nickel Company's smelter in the usual form of 460-lb. cakes, or slabs. These were received in open cars in lots of 250 pieces. At the refinery the cakes were unloaded onto narrow- • gauge cars, for convenient handling and pickup by charging cranes. In March 1936, an investigation was started on the feasibility of transferring converter copper in the molten state from the smelter to the refinery anode furnaces, a distance of 1 1/4 miles. Although common in steel practice, the transportation of blister copper in this form had not previoisly been attempted and a preliminary study of the various factors involved was therefore necessary. For this purpose, a series of experiments was made in which molten copper, removed at different stages during the furnace cycle, was held in a small portable holding furnace. This vessel was essentially a refractory-lined steel cylinder provided with ports for filling and emptying, heated by an oil burner. Dimensions of the steel shell were 3 ft. 10 in. diameter by 7 ft. 3 in. long, and thickness of refractories depended on the design and combination used for the particular experiment. The vessel was filled with approximately 2 1/2 tons of copper at a predetermined temperature, the lining having been preheated to a definite point by means of an oil burner. All openings were well luted and temperature readings were made every 15 min. by means of an immersion-type thermocouple. In this manner the rate of heat loss resulting with different refractory design could be developed. The ratio of exterior surface to weight of metal was taken into consideration in comparing the experimental results with what might be expected for a full-sized unit, and observations were also made on type and degree of slag accretion. It was not possible to get as much information on this latter point as desirable, but all evidence showed that the problem would be control of slag build-up rather than attack on refractories. From the information derived, and in consultation with the engineering staff of the supplying company, an order was placed for the first

Jan 1, 1944