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By W. O. Brown

A laboratory investigation was conducted to determine quantitatively the extent to which connate water was contacted and displaced by invading flood water. In these experiments the connate water in unconsoli-dated sand packed columns was completely displaced by injecting water. The nature of this displacement was similar to that previously described for single-phase miscible fluid displacement studies, and thus the presence of a non-wetting immiscible phase did not appreciably change the nature of the displacement. The effects of water injection rate, column length, and oil viscosity on connate water displacement were investi-gated. It is concluded that the connate water in a reservoir is the water which actually displaces oil from the pores of the rock during a water flood. During a water flood the connate water forms a zone which separates the invading flood water from the continuous oil phase. The size and shape of connate water bank is chiefly dependent oil the oil viscosity and the column length. INTRODUCTION Water flooding is one of the most widely used techniques for the secondary recovery of oil. Presently, however, it is still not possible to recover all the oil in a reservoir by water flooding. The research described in this paper was conducted as part of a study to determine the conditions under which 100 per cent oil recovery could be attained by water flooding. The particular objective of this work was to determine if any chemical agent, regardless of its nature, placed in the flood water could be effective in influencing the mechanism of displacement of the oil by water. It has been known for many years that water does not displace all the oil in a reservoir because a portion of the oil is "trapped" and held immobile by capillary forces. This oil is trapped within the pores of a water-wet rock when it becomes broken into discontinuous globules. Initially, when oil is present at high saturations within the pores of a water-wet rock, the connate water forms rings around the points of contact of the sand grains and may even completely fill small cavities between grains, whereas the oil occupies the larger void spaces between the grains.' Under these conditions, the oil in these spaces is in the form of irregular but continuous filaments, the diameters of which depend on the geometry of the sand pores. The filaments are formed by the oil contained in the small cells which are formed between the sand grains and are connected to their neighboring cells by channels or tunnels formed by pendular rings of water. At a high oil saturation, the oil filaments conform approximately to the shape and size of the cells and their connecting tunnels. Starting with this distribution, as the water saturation is increased the water layers in the small cavities and on the surface of the grains grow. As this occurs, the water rings grow and the diameters of the oil filaments decrease. When an oil filament is reduced to a critically small diameter, the filament breaks, and its tunnel fills completely with water. Any oil which remains within a cell after all its connecting tunnels have been water-filled is trapped as a discontinuous globule. Once the oil has become trapped, the capillary forces oppose distortion of the globules and may prevent their being squeezed through the water-filled tunnels. Only a very small pressure gradient is sufficient to keep oil moving as a continuous filament. On the other hand, once the filament has broken into discontinuous oil droplets a relatively large force is required to distort the surface of a drop and move it through a water-

Jan 1, 1958

By John Dasher

Extrapolation is a useful technique, but it can be overdone. Seldom is it justified to study over a range of 1 to 6 and extrapolate the results to 150,000. It is especially dangerous if the extrapolation is based on a false assumption. The authors assume settlers scale-up by residence time rather than by area, admit their result (a settler depth of 7 m) is "unreasonable" and suggest longer, wider, shallower settlers might be better. Various authors have noted for a copper-LIX system a total flow basis of 2 gpm per sq ft for sizing settlers. The results of this are compared with those in the paper in [Table 7]. The authors note that flooding of their settlers was never approached. Thus the smallest unit calculated is understandably twice too big. The largest however, is 5% of the required size. I note that the figures in [Table 6] for 1/min/cm2 are based on plan area rather than cross section as titled and are wrong by l0 4. A flow of 2050 1/min/cm2 is about Mach I. It is also 10 5/3 or 46.5 times that of the little one, although the abstract says the design was based on constant flow rate per unit cross section.

Jan 1, 1977

By Walter R. Hibbard, George H. Eichelman, William P. Saunders

INTEREST in the various products of the austenite eutectoid transformation in iron-carbon alloys, particularly as produced by the isothermal sub-critical techniques introduced by Davenport and Bain,1 has resulted in the application of similar heat treatments to other eutectoid transformations. Studies2.3.4 of the beta copper-aluminum alloy eutectoid transformation revealed microstructures very similar to those found in iron-carbon alloys. Investigations5,6 of the kappa phase in the copper-silicon alloy system have established the eutectoid type transformation of this phase into terminal alpha and intermediate gamma phases. This transformation has been reported' as forming a eutectoid type structure in a very sluggish manner by a long time isothermal treatment. The purpose of the present investigation is to study the products of the kappa eutectoid transformation as affected by transformation temperatures by means of microscopic and hardness methods. PREPARATION OF ALLOYS The copper-silicon alloy equilibrium diagram is shown in Fig I. The kappa field converges to a minimum silicon solubility at the eutectoid composition and all other completely kappa alloys are hypereutectoid. Thus, kappa decomposition involves first the proeutectoid precipitation of gamma, followed by the eutectoid transformation of a lower silicon content kappa (5.2 pct). Smith5 has indicated that alloys containing between 5.4 and 5.7 pct silicon could be hot rolled, but that the latter composition was desirable in order to permit a wider kappa temperature range. The alloy was prepared by adding Baker's commercially pure silicon to an ingot of copper-silicon alloy containing 2.34 pct silicon remaining from the investigation of Brick, Martin and Angier.7 Following the casting techniques of Krynitsky, Saunders and Stern,8 the ingot was melted under a heavy layer of dried charcoal in a clay-graphite crucible in a gas-fired pot furnace. Small lumps of silicon were held under the melt surface with a graphite rod. After the silicon had dissolved, the alloy was chill-cast and then remelted without a cover, stirred thoroughly, skimmed and poured into a preheated cast iron mold. The cast microstructure is shown in Fig 2. The casting, 10 X 4 X ¾ in., was annealed at 750°C for 21 brand furnace cooled. About 1/16 in. was milled from all surfaces. The plate was cut in half longitudinally and the bottom half analyzed by A.S.T.M. methods.9 The composition by weight was as follows: copper 94.24 pct, silicon 5.56 pct, iron 0.11 pct.

Jan 1, 1948

Discussion of the paper of GEORGE S. RICE and H. H. CLARK, presented at the Pittsburgh meeting, October, 1914, and printed in Bulletin No. 94, October, 1914, pp. 2563 to 2571. NORMAN V. BRETH,* Pittsburgh, Pa.-It was my privilege to visit in the last two months on behalf of the U. S. Bureau of Mines 10 mines where electric shot-firing systems controlled from outside the mine are installed. I will describe briefly what I saw in some of these mines, which are located in Utah, New. Mexico, Oklahoma, Alabama, and Kansas. At a mine in Utah, 230-volt alternating current is used to fire the shots, which is taken from a small transformer in the substation. The shot-iring circuit is independent of all other wires and is tested for grounds every day. There are no lightning arresters on the firing circuit. Porcelain insulators are used inside of the mine, and glass outside. The switches are situated as follows: One in the substation, one in, the shot-firer's cabin, two at each cross entry; where the shot-firing circuit crosses the trolley wire a switch is placed on either side of the entry in series with the shot-firing circuit. The miners are checked in and out of the mine. The coal is undercut and is shot down with permissible explosive, the shots being connected in multiple. There are 75 to 110 shots fired each day. A great many times there are no missed shots. If not more than two or three are missed they are left until next day. The fan is kept running at full speed when the shots are fired. The shot-firing switch is closed only once and the whole mine is shot at once. At another mine in Utah, power wires are used for shot-firing circuits; 500-volt, direct current is used to fire the shots. The only sizes of wire used outside of the power wires are Nos. 8 and 14 B. & S. gauge. The return is connected to the pipe lines and track. Porcelain insulators are. used inside of the mine.

Jan 4, 1915

By G. T. Brookman, P. B. Katz, D. K. Martin, J. A. Ripp

With the increasing emphasis on using American fossil fuel resources, more facilities are evaluating coal conversion. In addition, those facilities now using coal are considering better coal storage procedures to minimize negative environmental impacts. For example, rainfall and snowmelt on a coal pile produce a drainage stream high in acidity, suspended and dissolved solids, iron, sulfate, and trace metals. Usually, the characteristics of the runoff stream do not allow for direct discharge to streams and lakes. Detention in a holding pond and pH adjustment are traditional methods of treating coal pile runoff before discharge. Historically, this treatment methodology has been performed inefficiently without a good data base to assess how much runoff treatment is needed to meet effluent guidelines. A model was developed to simulate runoff volume and pollutant loadings under different rainfall conditions. This model will be used to size and design treatment works for coal pile drainage. The Ohio State University (OSU) version of the Stanford watershed model was selected as the base model. The OSU model simulates overland runoff in a rural area. It includes factors such as soil moisture, depression storage, infiltration, and flow to a ground water reservoir. TRC also used the OSU co-model for acid production in coal refuse piles as the basis for qualitative modeling work. A number of modifications were made to the OSU models to make them applicable to coal storage piles. The physical/chemical reactions included in the models are described in more detail in the project report. In addition, the models were altered so that a standard NOAA magnetic tape of historical meteorological data can be used as data input instead of requiring the user to create a data file. The resulting TRC coal pile drainage model is actually two models - a quantitative model, termed H2OTRC, and a qualitative model, TRCCOAL.

Jan 1, 1984

By Dr. Hans Von Höfer

APART from the hypothesis of a .cosmic origin (which failed of acceptance because it was not adequately supported by facts), the only important controversy concerning the origin of petroleum has been, for a long time, between the advocates of inorganic and of organic origin respectively. Each of these theories has had a long history of development, and is still being perfected, under the influence of two causes: (1) the increasingly extensive and thorough study of the oil-fields (of which new examples are periodically discovered and opened); and (2) the progress of synthetic experiments devoted to this question. Moreover, the advance in our physical and chemical knowledge of the properties of this peculiar natural product has necessarily modified all criticism of conflicting views. I. THE HYPOTHESIS OF INORGANIC ORIGIN That the notion of an inorganic origin of petroleum, first set forth by Berthelot in 1866, and afterward ingeniously developed and formulated by Mendelejeff, should thus have proceeded chiefly from chemists, is quite natural; for the question was one of possible chemical processes in the earth's interior, and of imagined chemical reactions to be, verified by experiment. Hypotheses of this kind were suggested by many chemists, of whom two, P. Sabatier and J. H. Senderens, may be specially named by reason of their highly interesting chemical experiments. Among geologists, Mendelejeff's hypothesis was received at first with much interest and favor; for it rested on the assumption of a central terrestrial mass of iron carbide, and the geologists had good reasons for adopting that assumption. Yet comparatively few of them attempted to furnish geological proofs of the hypothesis: the majority either silently believed in it, or for one or another reason rejected it altogether.

Jan 5, 1914

By Thomas Fraser, David R. Mitchell

THE primary purpose of the loading plant is to transfer the finished product from the preparation machines to the railroad car, truck, or barge in which it is to go to market. Secondary purposes of the loading plant are: to prevent excessive degradation of sizes during loading, to reduce segregation as much as possible, and to prevent excessive quantities of very good or off-grade coal from entering any one car. Nonuniformity of consignments is one of the chief sources of complaints by consumers and coal merchants. A properly designed loading plant will do much to reduce complaints and insure uniformity, not only from shipment to shipment but also in each individual consignment along the length of the car and in cross section. DEGRADATION IN STORAGE, LOADING AND SHIPMENT The object in loading is not only to handle the coal without breakage and segregation, but also to produce a well-trimmed load that will ride to its destination without spillage o~ breakage en route. The small sizes present in a car-of prepared coal as received by the purchaser consist of: missed small sizes not screened out in the preparation plant, breakage during loading, and breakage caused by handling en route. For domestic sizes of anthracite shipped from the Pennsylvania anthracite field to Atlantic coast cities, the dealers' loss because of breakage in loading and shipment amounts to from 2 to 5 per cent and for anthracite shipped to Middle West cities, the loss is 8 to 9 per cent. This difference is in part because dealers in the Middle West rescreen their coal more thoroughly than is usual in the East. One dealer handling Illinois No. 6 coal shipped from southern Illinois mines to Chicago reports an average size loss of 10 per cent when lump coal is unloaded with a fork. This runs as low as 5 per cent for carefully loaded coal and as high as 15 per cent for carelessly loaded coal. An Ohio dealer estimates the degradation in loading and shipment of West Virginia coals consigned to Ohio cities as follows: Pocahontas lump

Jan 1, 1950

By D. Weinstein

The high temperature mechanical properties of stainless steels after fast neutron irradiation are discussed in the light of effects caused by lattice dattmage and effects caused by helium generated from n,a transmutations. Embrittlement at high temperatures is due to helium accumulation at grain boundaries and to cavity formation and proPagation along grain boundaries. Following from the embrittlement mechanism, it is suggested that when deformation occurs by mechanisms associated with super plasticity, helium ac-curnulation at boundaries should be attenuated and cavities, if formed, should be nonpropagating. As the mean free Path between interphase boundaries of a two-phase Fe-Cr-Ni alloy was decreased, the degree of superplastic deforrnation at 870°C increased, as vneaszired by total elongation and by the expottent m = a log 'a/a log 'i. This alloy and type 304 stainless steel were cyclotron irradiated in an a-particle beam to a helium concentration of -1 x 10 atom He per atom. The stainless steel specimen was embrittled, but the ductility of irradiated two-phase Fe-Cr-Ni alloys correlated with the values of. m during 'defor-malion. The .finest grained, helium-injected specimens that deforrned with highest m values exhibited the largest elongations to ,fracture. These results could be correlated with metallographic observations of cavity behavior: the propensity for intergranular propagation was lessened as the m value increased. It is concluded that superplastic deformation is ef-fectizle in attenuating helium embrittlement at elevated temperatures. One of the principal problems associated with development of fast breeder reactors is application of alloys such that suitable fuel cladding results. Stainless steels and other Fe-Cr-Ni alloys, because of highly acceptable nuclear characteristics, represent the primary materials for this component, and an exhaustive research and development effort is being conducted. The main deficiency of these materials has been a severe loss of ductility at high temperatures after fast neutron irradiation. An extensive body of mechanical property data and microstructural observations has provided an adequate phenomenological description of embrittlement; in conjunction with transmission electron microscopy studies, a reasonably acceptable embrittlement mechanism has been obtained. Following from this mechanism, it is suggested in the present work that ductility would be enhanced if deformation could occur by mechanisms associated with the phenomenon of superplasticity. Experiments to test this hypothesis have been conducted, and the results are presented and discussed in this paper. IRRADIATION EMBRITTLEMENT AT HIGH TEMPERATURE Austenitic stainless steels have been irradiated to accumulated fast neutron fluences of 1020 to 1022 nvt at temperatures between 60" and 600°C. Specimens that have been exposed to these conditions and subsequently tensile tested at temperatures between 600" and about 900°C exhibit approximately 5 pct total elongation to fracture.'-3 For unirradiated specimens receiving a nearly identical thermal exposure, total elongation at these test temperatures is about 45 pct. Examination of irradiated specimens has shown that fracture propagation is entirely intergranular. These phenomenological aspects of irradiation embrittle-ment at elevated temperatures are well known and are not generally disputed. Although the explanation of this phenomenon has been controversial, a mechanism for ernbrittlement has emerged that accounts reasonably well for the observed mechanical behavior. The controversy resulted primarily from an indeterminate role of neutron-in-duced lattice damage, if any, and a presumed, but experimentally unverified, contribution to embrittle-ment from helium generated by n,a transmutations. Recently, Holmes and coworkers4 have conducted experiments that separate these effects, and the results are instructive in formulation of the ernbrittlement mechanism. Holmes el al.4 irradiated type 304 stainless steel in EBR-I1 to a fluence of 1.4 x 1022 nvt (E > 0.18 mev); the irradiation temperature was 538" * 48°C or, in terms of absolute melting point, 0.49 * 0.03 T,. After irradiation, tensile tests were conducted at temperatures of 21" to 870.C, the specimens first being annealed for 30 min at each test temperature. In addition, thin sections of irradiated specimens were annealed for 1 hr at identical temperatures, electro and examined by transmission electron microscopy. Thus, for a given temperature, it was possible to correlate mechanical properties with the defect structure. At room temperature, the yield stress of irradiated specimens was a factor of 2.5 higher than unirradi-ated specimens exposed to an equivalent thermal history. Electron microscopic examination of the irradiated specimen revealed a high density of lattice damage in the form of Frank sessile dislocation loops and polyhedral voids. Holmes et al.4 concluded that the presence of this defect substructure caused the increase in yield stress and that after irradiation in a fast neutron flux at 0.49 Tm, substantial lattice dam-age persists. Annealing at progressively higher tem-

Jan 1, 1970

By R. T. Hukki

This paper presents a series of equations for mechanical ball wear, relating parameters of ball size, mill speed, and mill diameter. The fundamental equation, Eq. 12, presented here is introduced to correlate these basic parameters and thus define and clarify the concept of ball wear. This equation is offered as a general rule, which may be modified to apply to individual problems of grinding. BALL wear as observed in grinding installations is the combined result of mechanical wear and corrosion. Corrosion should be a linear function of the ball surface available. Ball corrosion, however, has been studied so little that its effect, although of great importance, cannot be included in the analyses given here. In a separate paper' it is shown that 1 n = 0.7663 np----=— rpm [1] vD P = c, np D kw [2] T=c²(np)n De tph [3] In these equations n — actual mill speed, rpm np = calculated percentage critical speed D = ID of mill in feet P = power required to operate a mill, kw T = capacity of a mill, tph C¹ and c² - appropriate constants in = exponent of numerical value of 1 5 m 1.5 Exponent m is the slope of a straight line on logarithmic paper relating mill speed (on the abscissa) and mill capacity (on the ordinate). It is generally accepted, although not sharply defined, that ball wear in mills running at low (cascading) speeds is a function of the ball surface available. Accordingly, the wear of a single ball may be considered to be a homogeneous, linear function of its surface and of the distance traveled. Thus dw = f¹(d2) . f2(ds) [4] where dw is the wear of a single ball in time dt, d the diameter of the average ball in ball charge, and ds the distance traveled by the ball in time dt. Indicating that ds - a D n dt, the wear of the average ball in time dt becomes dw = f¹(d2) . f2(Dn dt) 1 --- f¹ (d1) f² (D c3 np-----— dt) \/D = c,d² n, D dt The rate of wear of the average ball is given by dw/dt. dw/dt = c, d² np D lb per hr [5] The weight of the ball charge per unit of mill length is a function of D The number of balls of size d in the ball charge is = f³(D2)/f4(d³). The rate of wear of the total ball charge equals the number of balls times rate of wear of the average ball. Thus rate of total ball wear = — . (dw/dt) w. c, . (l/d) . n,, D lb per hr [6] which is the equation of ball wear in low speed mills. In a mill running at a low speed, grinding is the result of rubbing action within the ball mass and between the ball mass and mill liners. When the speed of the mill is gradually increased toward the critical, the impacting effect of freely falling balls becomes increasingly prominent in comparison with the rubbing action. Reduction of ore takes place partly by rubbing, partly by impact. The share of the freely falling balls in the reduction of ore reaches its practical maximum at a speed somewhat less than the critical; at that speed grinding by rubbing has decreased to a low value. It may be reasonable to think that size reduction by freely falling balls should reach its theoretical maximum at the critical speed, if the fall of the balls were not hindered by the shell of the mill beyond the top point; grinding by rubbing would cease at the critical speed. As a first approximation, wear of freely falling balls may be considered to be a homogeneous, linear function of the force at which they strike pieces of rock and other balls at the toe of the ball charge. The force equals mass times acceleration. The mass of a ball is a function of d3 and its acceleration is a function of the peripheral speed of the mill. The wear of a single ball of size d representing the average ball in a ball charge will therefore be w¹ = f3(F) = f (d3) f7 (v). [7] Indicating that v = D n, and n = c³ np 1/vD, Eq. 7 becomes W1 = cn d3 np Do.5 lb per hr. [8] Total wear of the ball charge equals number of balls times the wear of the average ball. Number of

Jan 1, 1955

By N. G. W. Cook

The conventional cyclic system of deep-level mining by drilling and blasting gives rise to an inadequate degree of stope sorting when mining thin reefs. This results in poor utilization of the capital facilities of a mine in the form of shafts, haulages, airways, and associated equipment. Continuous and controlled removal of the thin gold-bearing portion of the reefs would permit better stope sorting and hence greater utilization of capital facilities. Results of experiments to develop hard-rock cutting machines for mining are reported and the benefits which could be derived from their use are discussed. Mining, from exploration through refining, is essentially a process of sorting in which the payable mineral, or metal, is progressively separated from the other constituents of the earth's crust with which it was originally associated. This takes place more distinctly at each step of the operation. What is it that determines the degree to which sorting should be carried out at each of the several steps comprising a whole mining operation? The formal answer is that degree of sorting at each step which results in the lowest overall cost for the complete separation. In practice, individual steps are chosen from those available in current technology, each of which effects a degree of sorting such that the quantity of material which must be sorted in the succeeding step is economically acceptable. It follows that any new technological development has repercussions throughout the whole mining operation and, more important, that the solution to excessive costs in any one step of the operation may lie not in improving the costly operation itself so much as in increasing the degree of sorting preceeding that operation. This concept, particularly in relation to deep-level mining of thin, tabular gold-bearing reefs in South Africa, is discussed here, and the most recent results achieved in the development of hard-rock cutting machines for stoping more selectively than is possible with explosives are presented. Deep-Level Mining Deep-level mining involves operations which are either not encountered, or are of only trivial importance, in near-surface mining. Near-surface, the major operations are those of rock breaking, transport, and milling. In deep-level mining, hoisting, environmental control, and strata control assume major importance. Some idea of the relative magnitude of these operations may be gained by comparing the separate amounts of energy which are required, or which must be controlled, to effect the various operations when, say, mining a tabular deposit 40 in. thick at 8000 ft below surface, Table 1. It is true that the costs of handling a given quantity of energy are not the same for each operation. Nevertheless, Table 1 does emphasize the fact that the operations of hoisting, strata control, and environmental control are of unique and major significance in deep-level mining. In particular, hoisting and environmental control place a heavy load on the reticulation system of the mine—the shafts, haulages, and airways. Typically, a new, deep gold mine with an annual revenue of about $35 million requires a total capital expenditure of about $140 million of which some $100 million is invested in developing and equipping this reticulation system. The ratio between annual turnover and capital invested of about one-quarter is exceptionally low, and it typifies the poor utilization of capital by the current technology of mining hard rock at depth. The average thickness of the reefs in the new South African goldfields varies from 10 to 30 in.,l and even in the thicker reefs the gold is often confined within a small fraction of the nominal thickness. Nevertheless, it is universal practice to mine these reefs at a stope width of about 40 in. or more, so that the quantity of rock broken in the stopes and hoisted out of the mine is between two and ten times the quantity of rock actually carrying a significant amount of gold. The reason for the adoption of such excessive stope widths is to be found in the method of rock breaking by drilling and blasting. The only free surface to which a blast hole can break is the stope face. It follows2 that each hole cannot have a burden in excess of the height of the free face if it is to break satisfactorily. To

Jan 1, 1971

By L. Dudley Stamp

On April 1, 1937, Burma, formerly a province of the Indian Empire, was formally separated from India and became an independent unit of the British Commonwealth. In future, therefore, statistics of oil production in India will exclude Burma and those for Burma will be separately published. The last few years have been marked by noteworthy, almost spectacular, developments in the oil fields of Burma and the Punjab. In Burma these developments have been the proving of unexpected extensions of the existing fields and not the discovery of entirely new fields. The new extensions are important not only to Burma in giving a new lease of life to her fields, but also in general as stressing some interesting geological aspects hitherto neglected. Production The production of crude oil in Imperial gallons has been: Burma India 1934 254,760,070 67,265,210 1935 251,338,974 . 71,323,362 1936 265,656,393 69,241,504 1937 (eat.) 270,000,000 70,000,000 The Chindwin Fields.—The small field at Indaw continues to produce steadily about 3,000,000 gal. a year, but no really deep test has yet been successfully carried out and resources are thus not yet fully known. The remote location of the field, inaccessible except by river and situated 22 miles from the Chindwin 270 miles up that river from its junction with the Irrawaddy, has not encouraged active exploitation. The field is worked exclusively by the Indo-Burma Petroleum Co., Ltd. (I.B.P.), using now an automatic gas-lift system, and the company formerly refined the oil at a small refinery at Pantha on the river near by. The chief market was for kerosene in upper Burma. The refinery has now been closed. The oil is stored on the field during the low-water season

Jan 1, 1938

By Walter L. Maxson, Fred C. Bond

SINCE the last publication of tabulated results of grindability tests by the authors1 the total number of ball-mill tests made has more than doubled, and rod-mill tests have become increasingly important. Nearly all of the standard closed-circuit ball-mill and rod-mill tests made to date are included in the present tabulation, together with additional information not previously published. STANDARD BALL-MILL GRINDABILITY TESTS The method of conducting these closed-circuit tests has not been altered. A sample of the ore or other material is stage-crushed in rolls set at 1/16-in. opening with a 6-mesh screen until all of it has passed the screen. The combined minus 6-mesh screen undersize is mixed, sampled and screen-analyzed, and its apparent specific gravity is determined by packing and shaking in a standard container, and weighing. The apparent specific gravity ordinarily is about 60 per cent of the true specific gravity. The unit volume present in the mill in all tests is 700 c.c. of the packed minus 6-mesh roll product, and the number of grams occupying 700 c.c. is the unit test weight. This weight is placed in the mill dry, ground for the number of revolutions estimated to be necessary, discharged, and screened mechanically in three testing sieves of the mesh size at which the test is to be conducted. The oversize, or circulating load, is weighed, sufficient fresh minus 6-mesh feed is added to bring the total weight up to that of 700 c.c., and the charge is returned to the mill for a second grinding period. All standard ball-mill tests are conducted at 250 per cent circulating load, and the number of revolutions in the mill necessary to obtain this circulating load at any grinding period is estimated from the results of the previous period. The number of net grams of screen undersize produced per revolution of the mill approaches its final equilibrium value after several grinding periods, and this is recorded as the grindability, or relative ease of grinding, of the sample. A cylindrical ball mill, 12 by 12 in. inside, with a smooth lining and rounded corners, is used with a revolution counter. Under standard grinding conditions it runs at 70 r.p.m., and contains a charge of 285 iron balls weighing 20,125 grams, ranging from I ½ to ¾ in. in diameter. Tests are conducted at the mesh size to which the ore is to be ground in practice, and the capacity to be expected from a given mill is calculated by comparing the

Jan 1, 1943

By Roland D. Parks

To construct a yieldable metal prop of demonstrated practicability has been the aim of the writer of this article for a period of years. Such a prop is herewith described; it involves a yielding principle not previously utilized, to the best of the author's knowledge, in any of the numerous types of props which are in use in Europe and England or on record at the United States Patent Office.' No attempt will be made in this paper to analyze the situation in regard to the economics of timber substitutes. Suffice it to say that shortage of suitable timber combined with high freight rates has already presented a problem in some mining districts, and in the relatively near future will probably demand considerable attention from the mining industry as a whole. In order to understand the problems involved in the design of timber substitutes for underground support, it will be well to review briefly the fundamentals of ground subsidence and of the action of timber as props. The forces encountered in the support of mine openings are not computable. As a rule subsiding ground moves slowly; but it moves with an irresistible force. The only way to be certain of stopping ground movement is to completely fill up the openings below such movement. This is, obviously, an impracticability from the mining standpoint. The ordinary procedure is to put in timber to hold up the loose back and permit the natural arch above to resist its own loading. Under these conditions the timber rigidly supports the loose; but if the natural arch fails, the timber is then called upon to resist this additional pressure. Usually it cannot do this. The result is a crushing of the supports. Efficient timbering is that which will last just long enough to complete in safety the mining operations necessary to extract the ore. Wood has a cellular structure. It has great longitudinal strength for its weight. Further, it possesses the ability to maintain a high percentage of its strength while it is being crushed. In other words, it rigidly supports loads up to its capabilities and then continues to sustain

Jan 1, 1934

By M. Metzger, J. C. Bilello

Microyielding in 99.999 pct Cu occuwed in two distinct parabolic microstages and was substantially indeoendent of grain size at the relatiz~ely large grain sizes stzcdied. The strain recouered on unloading was a significant fraction of the forward strain and was initially higher in a copper-coated single crystal than in poly crystals. Results were interpreted in terms of cooperative yielding and short-range dislocation motion activated otter a range of stresses, and a formalism was given for the first microstage. It was suggested that models involving long-range dislocation motion are more appropriate for impure or alloyed fcc metals. THERE are still many unanswered questions concerning the degree and origin of the grain size dependence of plastic properties. In the microstrain region, a theory of the stress-strain curve proposed by Brown and Lukens,' based on an exhaustion hardening model in which the grain boundaries limit the amount of slip per source, accounted for the variation with grain size of microyielding in iron, zinc, and copper.' This theory assumes N dislocation sources per unit volume whose activation stress varies only with grain orientation. Dislocations pile-up against grain boundaries until the back stress deactivates the source, which leads to a relationship between the axial stress and the strain in the microstrain region given by: where G is the shear modulus, D the grain diameter, a the flow stress, and a, is the stress required to activate a source in the most favorably oriented grain.3 If this or other grain-boundary pile-up models are correct, then the reverse strain on unloading would be much larger for a polycrystalline specimen than for a single crystal. Also, the microplasticity would become insensitive to grain size if this could be made larger than the mean dislocation glide path for a single crystal in the microregion. These questions are examined in the present work on polycrys-talline copper and a single crystal coated to provide a synthetic polycrystal. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE Tensile specimens 3 mm sq were prepared from 99.999 pct Cu after a sequence of rolling and vacuum annealing treatments similar to those recommended by Cook and Richards4-6 to minimize preferred orientation. Grain size variation from 0.05 to 0.38 mm was obtained by a final anneal at temperatures from 310" to 700°C. Dislocation etching7 revealed pits on those few grains within 3 deg of (111). For all grain sizes dislocation densities could be estimated as -107 cm per cu cm with no prominent subboundaries. The single crystals, of the same cross section, were grown by the Bridgman technique with axes 8 deg from [Oll] and one face 2 deg from (111). An anneal at 1050°C produced dislocation densities of 2 x 106 cm per cu cm and subboundaries -1 mm apart in these single crystals. A Pb-Sn-Ag creep resistant solder was used to mount the specimens, with a 19 mm effective gage length, into aligned sleeve grips fitted to receive the strain gages. All specimens were chemically polished and rinsed8 to remove surface films just prior to testing. The synthetic polycrystal was made by electroplating a single crystal with 1 µ of polycrystalline copper from a cyanide bath. Mechanical testing was carried out on an Instron machine using two matched LVDT tranducers to measure specimen displacement, the temperature and the measuring circuit being sufficiently stable to yield a strain sensitivity of 5 x 107. At the crosshead speeds employed, plastic strain rates were, above strains of 10¯4, about 10¯5 per sec for polycrystalline specimens and 10-4 per sec for the single crystals. Plastic strain rates were an order of magnitude lower at strains near l0- '. A few checks at strain rates tenfold higher were made for reassurance that the initial yielding of polycrystalline copper was not strongly strain-rate dependent. Test procedures followed the general framework outlined by Roberts and Brown.9,10 An alignment preload of 8 g per sq mm for polycrystals, and 2 to 4 g per sq mm for single crystals, was used for all tests. These gave no detectable permanent strain within the sensitivity of the present experiments; although at these stress levels, small permanent strains are detectable in copper with methods of higher sensitivity.11 12 stress and strain data are reported in terms of axial components. RESULTS General. The initial yielding is shown in the stress vs strain data of Fig. 1. For polycrystals, cycle lc, the loading line bent over gradually without a well-defined proportional limit, and almost all of the plastic prestrain appeared as permanent strain at the end of the cycle. The unloading curve was accurately linear over most of its length with a distinct break indicating the onset of a significant nonelastic reverse strain at the stress o u, indicated by the arrows. The yielding in subsequent cycles, Id and le, had the same general character. The single crystal behavior, shown to a different scale at the right of Fig. 1, was different in that initially the nonlinear reverse strain was unexpectedly much greater than for polycrystals. It should be noted that these soft crystals had a small elastic

Jan 1, 1970

By Henry Gross

RECENTLY, areas of abnormal rock pressure have been drilled on the Gulf Coast of the United States. These pressures may be caused by the recent and pronounced raising of some of the structures without loss of the formation pressure that existed when the reservoir was developing and the producing sand much more deeply buried. It is possible also that a permeable fissure may connect a shallow accumulation of gas with the gas cap of a much deeper reservoir of oil, gas and water. The pressures are so great that dependence on blowout-prevention equipment alone is hazardous to life and property. Fortunately, wells with excessive casing-head pressures, such as the Stanolind Oates No. 1 of the South Houston field, an 8700-ft. gas well with 6000 lb. per sq. in., and the near-by Stanolind Candelari No. 1, and 8100-ft. gas well with 5000 lb. per sq. in., have not blown out and cratered. A case is on record of drill pipe in a, well in Harris County, Texas, (Oates No. 1) rotating for 8 hr. through blowout-prevention rants holding a back pressure of 2900 1b. per sq. in. at the casinghead after the mud was altered by salt-water intrusion. Such conditions warrant the use of extremely heavy muds having low viscosity, made from galena (PbS) or specially prepared mixtures of hematite (Fe203) and galena suspended by bentonite. In some Gulf Coast wells, sodium silicate mixed with concentrated brine is used to drill through heaving shale formations. Such a fluid inhibits heaving remarkably, but it is expensive and costs as much as $10 per barrel. Barite has been used to weight this mixture. However, this mineral too rapidly increased an already excessive viscosity and it was thought that galena might be better for weighting such drilling fluid. The operator was anxious to try the latter, but none was available in the district.

Jan 1, 1938

By George Gardner

THE application of wet cleaning processes for the beneficiation of bituminous coal has created in some localities a problem in the recovery and disposal of fine solids in the washery water. The maximum allowable concentration of these solids in the washery circuit that is consistent with satisfactory operation of the cleaning units remains a controversial point. It has, however, been generally recognized for a number of years that some degree of control should be exerted over the concentration of such material. Early methods of control involved intermittent or continuous dis-charge of a portion of the plant slurry into near-by streams or settling ponds, and this persisted even after the adoption of settling tanks or cones. The practice is not always economical, for two reasons: first, because of the waste of coal, and, second, because it is sometimes difficult and expensive to obtain an adequate supply of water. The latter condi-tion often is aggravated by chemical treatment of the make-up water that is necessary to prevent excessive corrosion of plant equipment. The modern approach to this problem has been the adoption of continuous thickening devices. However, because such equipment occupies consid-erable plant space and is somewhat expensive to construct, the practice of loading these thickeners beyond their rated capacity is widespread, there-fore often the performance of such units is not altogether satisfactory. In recent years, European washeries have increased the rate of settling of the fine coal from the slurry by the addition of specially pre-pared starch solutions. These reagents cause flocculation of the solid particles and thereby increase the rate of sedimentation.

Jan 1, 1939

By B. D. Cullity, K. S. Sree Harsha

When a copper or aluminum single crystal is swaged into wire, the resulting deformation texture depends on the original orientation of the crystal. The<100> and <111>orientations me essentially stable, while <110> is unstable. The greater the <100> content of the deformation texture, the stronger the wire is in torsion. the greater the<111>content, the stvonger it is in tenszotz. The preferred orientation (texture) of fcc wires, either after deformation or recrystallization, is usually a double fiber texture in which some grains have <100> parallel to the wire axis and others have <111>. The relative amounts of these two texture components, as reported by different investigators for the same metal, vary considerably. Previous work in this laboratory&apos; has shown that the starting texture of a wire, i.e., the texture which it has before deformation, can have a decided influence on the texture produced by deformation. In particular, it was found that the deformation texture of copper wire is essentially a single <100> texture, if the wire before deformation contains only a <100> component. This is true even when the deformation is carried to more than 98 pct reduction in area. This paper reports on further studies of the role played by the starting texture. Copper and aluminum single crystals of various orientations have been cold swaged into wire, and quantitative measurements of the resulting deformation textures have been made. The tensile and torsional properties of the deformed wires have also been measured, and the relation between these properties has been correlated with the texture of the wire. These measurements were made in order to demonstrate that a cold-worked wire can be made relatively strong in torsion and weak in tension, or vice versa, by proper selection of the texture before deformation. MATERIALS The copper was of the tough-pitch variety, containing, by weight, 99.962 pct Cu, 0.003 pct Fe, 0.025 pct 0, and 0.0021 pct Si. The aluminum contained more than 99.99 pct .&apos;41; the only reported impurities were 0.001 pct Fe, 0.001 pct Si, and 0.003 pct Zn, by weight. Large single crystals of these metals were grown by the Bridgman method in graphite crucibles and a helium atmospliere. Cylindrical specimens of predetermined orientation, about 1.5 in. long and 0.36 in. in diameter, were machined from the as-grown crystals and then etched to 0.25 in. to remove the effects of machining. Their orientations were checked by back-reflection Laue photographs, and they were then swaged to a diameter of 0.050 in. (96 pct reduction in area). 111 order to study the "inside texture" of the deformed wires, they were etched, after swaging, to a diameter of 0.040 in. before the texture measurements were made. TEXTURE MEASUREMENTS The fiber texture which exists in wire or rod can be represented by a curve showing the relation between the pole density I, for some selected crystal-lographic plane, and the angle $ between the pole of that plane and the wire axis (fiber axis). Such a curve will show maxima at particular values of , and these values disclose the texture components which are present. The relative amounts of these components can be determined2&apos;3 from the areas under the maxima on a curve of I sin F vs F. It is seldom necesszlry to measure I over the whole range of F from 0 to 90 deg, since the existence of maxima in the low-F relgion can be inferred from measurements confined to the high-F region. The X-ray measurements were made with a General Electric XRD-5 diffractometer and filtered copper radiation, according to one or the other of the following procedures: 1) A method developed in this laboratory,4 involving diffraction from a single piece of wire. 2) A modification of the Field and Merchant method.5 This method was originally devised for the examination of sheet specimens, but it can easily be adapted to the measurement of fiber texture. Three or four short lengths of wire are held in grooves machined in the flat face of a special lucite specimen holder. The axes of the wires are parallel to the plane defined by the incident and diffracted X-ray beams, and the holder to which the wires are attached can be rotated step-wise about the diffractometer axis for measurements at various angles 9.

Jan 1, 1962

By Z. E. Arlin, R. D. Lynn

A deep well injection system is used by The Anaconda Co. for the disposal of uranium mill tailing water near Grants, N. M. A 2511-ft hole was cored and tested through Triassic, Permian, and Pennsylvanian (?) sediments and bottomed in Precambrian granite gneiss. The disposal well was plugged back to 1830 ft and completed in 563 ft of sandstones in the Yeso formation. The reservoir sandstones contain water similar to the injected waste water, and are isolated from overlying fresh-water aquifers by an evaporite barrier zone. Mill tailing water is decanted, filtered, and introduced into the well by gravity at an average rate of 400 gpm. The reservoir has a life expectancy of 10 years. The Anaconda Co. began uranium milling operations near Grants, N. M. in 1953 with a small mill that processed limestone ores. A larger second mill was built in 1955 to treat sandstone ores. In 1956 it became apparent that a large tailing pond would be required to contain the increased discharge of mill waste water. Research was begun on supplementary methods of disposal by which a minimal pond size could be maintained to avert excessive seepage losses. An intensive sampling program was begun to monitor the fresh-water wells in the area. The original limestone mill ceased operation in 1959. The present mill treats sandstone ores by sulfuric acid leach and a resin-in-pulp ion exchange recovery circuit that uses chloride elution. Process waste water is discharged to a tailing pond where, after evaporation losses, an annual average of about 400 gpm are available for injection into the disposal well. The waste water is a mildly acid solution that contains large amounts of manganese, iron, and the sulfate and chloride salts of sodium, calcium, and magnesium. It is a low-level radioactive fluid that contains small amounts of Uranium-natural, Thorium-230, and Radium-226. The average chemical and radioactive analyses of the waste water injected into the disposal well are shown in Column B of Table I. Disposal of the excess mill waste water by deep well injection was investigated after extensive research had proved that alternate methods were not satisfactory. A study of the regional geology and hydrology indicated that a disposal well was feasible, and a test well to basement rock was planned. Tentative plans for the test well and the results of the geologic and hydrologic studies were submitted to the New Mexico Dept. of Public Health, the New Mexico State Engineer&apos;s Office, the U.S. Atomic

Jan 1, 1962

By Campbell Osborn

FROM the viewpoint of practical economic engineering the main value in studies of demand and supply lies in the information they give concerning the next movement of price. The title of this discussion is too comprehensive for detailed analysis and it will, therefore, be narrowed to the question of price measurement. The oil operator is interested primarily in net profits. Prices, costs and production determine them. Production is here used in its broadest sense. It includes refining and marketing. It is an operating problem. Prices and costs are economic considerations. Though costs are an important element of prices and profits, the subject is too large to be treated in a brief paper of this sort. In the long run, costs govern prices, but for the purpose of gaging prices in the immediate future the relationship of current demand and supply are more significant. Operating, expansion, retrenchment, sales and storage policies of oil companies are largely influenced by the feeling of executives concerning this relationship. The stockholders of companies whose executives are wrong may suffer. Investors who err in their judgment may likewise lose. On the other hand, oil companies and investors who appraise these factors correctly and move accordingly will profit. It is an important subject worthy of careful consideration.

Jan 1, 1928

By Stuart E. Buckley, C. R. Hocott

The viscosity of the oil in the reservoir is one of the properties that influence its movement through the sand to producing wells. Measurements of viscosity, therefore, are pertinent to problems associated with well behavior and with the estimation of recoveries, and afford an indirect means for partial evaluation of various methods of controlling reservoir behavior. The effect of dissolved gases on the viscosity of crude oil has been determined,ls2 but no data have been published on the viscosity of representative samples of reservoir oils. This paper describes a simple instrument that has been used to determine the viscosities of a number of subsurface oil samples at the temperatures and pressures existing in the reservoirs, and presents the results of the determinations for typical fields. Construction oF the Apparatus The principal requirements of any instrument used for the examination of subsurface samples are that it be strong and simple both in design and in method of operation. Accuracy beyond that of the degree of reproducibility of subsurface Sam-~les from various wells in a reservoir or exceeding that of the common measure-merits of reservoir temperatures and Pressures is not required. Because of the expense of procuring subsurface samples, it is necessary also that the instrument operate on a relatively small fraction of a sample, leaving the remainder for other tests, and that there be few or no failures of the equipment to cause undue delay or loss of a sample. After preliminary experiments with a falling bullet, the results of which were not satisfactory, a simple viscosimeter was built of the rolling ball type first proposed by Flowers3 and later used by several investiga-tor. 5.8 The apparatus consists essentially of a removable, accurately bored cylindrical barrel of 1/4-in. nominal internal diameter, 8 in. long, in which a closely fitting steel ball rolls through the oil with the barrel inclined at a definite angle. The ball makes contact at one end of the barrel with ail insulated electrode, closing an electrical circuit, which actuates a buzzer. The meas-urements consist essentially in determining the time required for the ball to travel the length of the barrel. The details of the construction are shown in Fig. I. The barrel in which the ball rolls was made from a section of 25-caliber blank rifle barrel, specially bored to an exact uniform diameter and polished. The barrel slides snugly into a hole bored in a solid stainless-steel cylinder, an upper external shoulder of the barrel compressing a small spring, and is held in place by a hollow nut. The spring prevents the barrel from seating against the bottom of the bored hole in the cylinder, while narrow external longitudinal slots in the barrel permit fluid to flow around it and through the bottom. The upper part of the recess in the steel cylinder is enlarged to form a tapered chamber, which acts as a reservoir for the oil and affords space for agitation to ensure

Jan 1, 1941