Search Documents

By A. Raja, C. C. Harris

Apparatus for maintaining constant — but adjustable — pulp level and rate of froth removal are described. The results of preliminary experiments into the effect of scraping speed on the rate of solid and liquid recovery with a semi-batch system are presented. Glass spheres restricted to a narrow size range is the solid under investigation. Graphical methods for estimating the mass of recoverable material and the zero error are given. The semi-batch procedure1 is extensively used in laboratory flotation testing, though the method is subject to variability of moderate severity. Raffinot2 concluded from a statistical study of the difference between replicate tests, that the ptincipal source of errot was the test itself and not sampling or chemical analysis. These differences can be ascribed principally to changes in pulp volume and reagent concentration, and uncontrolled rate and depth of scraping. Semi-batch testing has been criticized1 on these grounds as a means of investigating flotation kinetics. This paper discusses and describes modifications to laboratory flotation equipment which reduce the number of manual operations and lead to improved control. Kinetic studies were the primary reason for developing the apparatus described. It should, however be a useful aid in normal flotation testing. Some preliminary results of experiments are presented.

Jan 1, 1967

By D. S. Pye, J. P. Gallus

Successful hydraulic pressure treatment of oil and gas wells that have long producing intervals, multiple pay zones, fluid thief zones, or natural or induced fractures has long been a serious problem plaguing the petroleum industry. High fluid-injection rates, straddle packers, ball sealers, and either liquid or solid additives to the treating fluids are being used to cope with this difficult and costly problem.l-6 The use of ball sealers and straddle packers is limited, in practice, to wells that have been completed with perforated cemented casings or liners. Well stimulation with ball sealers and straddle packers is usually successful as long as the cement remains competent. The other techniques of diverting are used with all types of completions. However, there are two significant disadvantages of the high rate method: excessive horsepower requirements, and the need of large treating-fluid volume. Consequently, most well stimulation techniques that involve diverting depend upon ball sealers or granular materials. Liquid diverting agents, and some of the solid ones in use today, frequently will cause formation damage. On the other hand, the most popular particulate diverting agents often are so soluble in the treating fluid that they become largely ineffective; their particle size is severely reduced as they dissolve while being transported through thousands of feet of pipe to the formation face down hole. In our attempts to deal with the shortcomings of these diverting agents, we experimented with a large variety of potentially suitable deformable materials the solubility of which could be controlled. Following are the criteria for the diverting agent sought: 1. The material must be effective in reducing fluid loss to thief zones, including existing fractures and very high permeability layers in the formation to be pressure treated. 2. The material must have enough strength to bridge under the treating pressure. 3. The material must be insoluble or slowly soluble in the treating fluids so that the particles retain sufficient size to be effective after they reach the formation face. 4. The material must be completely soluble in the produced oil or condensate liquid so that it can be removed readily; it must not cause formation damage. A number of products consisting of various polymers blended with waxes and other solid hydrocarbons were examined. All these materials satisfied the criteria for a diverting agent and also exhibited some degree of plastic deformability. On the basis of initial tests of strength and hardness, several blends of wax and polymer were selected for extensive testing in the laboratory and the field. These compounds have congealing temperatures ranging from 140 to 190F; they are insoluble in water and soluble in oil. They conformed, therefore, to the criteria specified for a theoretically superior diverting agent. Laboratory and field tests were conducted using these wax-polymer materials to demonstrate that the use of a deformable diverting agent can significantly improve fluid diverting performance. Data in this

Jan 1, 1970

By J. H. Swisher

An experimental study has been made of the possible mechanisms for foam stability in the system CaO-SiO2-Cr2O3, where Cr2O3is the foaming agent. The degree of lowering of surface tension by Cr2O3 was determined at 1600 "C for high -silica melts. Measurements were also made of foam stability under standardized conditions. The results of the two sets of measurements then were correlated by applying the Gibbs and Marangoni theories of film elasticity. It was demonstrated that the Marangoni elasticity effect is probably the largest single contributor to foam stability, although the high uiscosity of' silicate melts makes some contribution in controlling the rate of drainage of liquid from bubble lamellae. ThE tendency of metallurgical slags to foam has frequently been observed during steel-refining operations. In the open-hearth furnace,this tendency is considered undesirable because it slows down the rate of heat transfer from the burners to the molten-metal bath. On the other hand, it is sometimes desirable to have a "foamy" slag in the basic oxygen converter.' A more effective blanket over the steel bath is made by a "foamy" slag, and loss in yield of metal due to splashing is minimized. In addition, a flush slag can be removed more easily in this condition. Since slag-foaming problems in the field have been attacked largely on an empirical basis, it appeared desirable to obtain a better basic understanding of the mechanism of foam stability. The experimental work was directed almost entirely toward the behavior of Cr2O3 as the foaming agent in CaO-SiO,-Cr2O3 melts. In the first stage of the investigation, the degree of lowering of surface tension by Cr2O3 was determined at 1600°C. The second stage consisted of measuring foam stabilities under standardized conditions. The two sets of experimental results then were correlated by applying various theories of foam stability. For convenience in interpreting the surface-tension and foam-stability results reported here, a portion of the CaO-SiO2-Cr2O3 phase diagram2 is reproduced in Fig. 1. EXPERIMENTAL 1) Surface-Tension Measurements. Very little information is available in the literature on the lowering of surface tension of slags by foaming agents. Kozakevitch 3 mentioned that the addition of 1.5 pct Cr2O3 lowered the surface tension of FeO slightly. In another system, some data on the lowering of surface tension of foaming slags by P2O5 were reported by Cooper and Kitchener.4 The technique used for the surface-tension measurements was the maximum bubble-pressure method,' using a single tube immersed to various depths in the melt. This method has been used extensively in high-temperature systems, such as in liquid metals, slags, and glasses.6,7 It has the advantage that the contact angle between the liquid and the tube material need not be known. The equation used for calculating surface-tension values from maximum bubble-pressure measurements is the Schroedinger equatioq5 which can be written as follows:

Jan 1, 1964

By J. B. Cheatham, M. D. Biggs

This paper presents a systematic method for determining the forces on a simplified roller bit. The kinematics of an actual roller bit drilling in rock is complex; nevertheless, it is desirable to obtain an accurate analytical model.. As a preliminary study, the roller bit is represented here by a simple two-dimensional bit and the rock by a Coulomb plastic material. Results from previous work, plus additional assumptions, are incorporated into a computer program to determine the forces required to move the bit in a specified manner. Example problems are worked by use of this program. By studying similar drilling problems and by supporting laboratory work, one could eventually obtain an accurate analytical model for drilling by an actual roller bit. This could lead to the compilation of a catalog of results that, in turn, would allow selection of the optimum drill bit for any given situation. INTRODUCTION

Jan 1, 1970

By R. G. Bentsen, D. A. T. Donohue

The cyclic steam injection process has become the most widely applied and most successful thermal recovery technique in use today.1-4 Normally, steam stimulation is repeated several times during the life of a project. The problem is to select the optimum number and size of steam treatments so that the profits realized over the entire life of the project are maximum. Obviously, operating costs rise directly with the frequency and amount of steam injection. Operating efficiency, on the other hand, can be adversely affected if the amount and frequency of stimulation are insufficient. Thus arises a multistage decision problem; that is, a decision must be made at each sub-period (day, for example), as to whether steam should be injected, and, if so, how much. It is desirable that these decisions be made in such a way as to secure maximum net profit before taxes. This can be achieved by dynamic programming. To use dynamic programming, we must be able to predict not only the production rate-time curve resulting from a given stimulation, but also how changes in stimulation policy will affect this curve. In this study, the effect of steam injection on well performance is estimated on the basis of a simple model that takes into account both steady-state and transient flow. Oil production rate is calculated for both types of flow, and the larger of the two values is used. This allows the calculation to change to radial steady-state flow at such time as this mechanism becomes more effective than the transient mechanism. We propose to show how dynamic programming can be used to optimize the steam soak process with respect to net profit. For this, a mathematical representation of the steam soak technique is necessary. A further objective, therefore, is the formulation of a mathematical model capable of realistically simulating the physical process. Oil Production Response Model The advantage of using a mathematical model is its generality and ease of manipulation. However, the model must be an accurate representation of the physical process, for a solution derived from a model can be no better than the model itself. The question now arises as to how well the model should be expected to simulate reality. In general, the simplest model should be tried first, for additional accuracy is apt to require additional cost and time. Also, the search for a high degree of accuracy may yield only greater complexity and difficulty without yielding significantly better results. With this in mind, we kept our model as simple as possible, yet generally representative of the actual physical process. The number of state variables is limited to three, and stochastic variations in the parameters are ignored. As a consequence, use of this model should be restricted to cases in which the underlying assumptions are not severely violated. In

Jan 1, 1970

By O. E. Palasvirta

Several drum-type, low-intensity dry magnetic separators have recently been described 1,2,3,4 all of which share at least two generic similarities. The magnet consists of a multiplicity of poles of alternating polarity and, the speed of the drum shell, relatiw to the magnet, is such that the magnetics are agitated through rotation of the magnetic particles around their individual axes. The speed of the drum relative to the magnet (differential speed) determines the frequency of the field reversals. For effective agitation this frequency generally has to be above a specific value, which varies according to the mean particle size of the magnetics. With separators of small diameter, say less than 11/2 ft., a sufficient differential speed for treatment of fine magnetite can be attained only by rotating both the magnet and the drum separately; separators of large diameter may attain sufficiently high differential speeds with stationary magnets. Separators of large diameter thus have the advantage of simplicity of design. The capacity of a separator of this type is directly proportional to the speed of the shell. As the centrifugal force opposing the magnetic force increases at a slower rate than the peripheral speed of the shell when drum diameter is increased, large drums can be operated with higher peripheral speeds. Thus they have a higher capacity than smaller drums. Separation is also a statistical phenomenon, i.e. the grade of concentrate improves as the number of agitations or rotations of the magnetic particles per separation increases. As separators of large diameter have space for a large number of magnets they are best suited for production of optimum grade concentrate. The statements above are general clues For separator design. In the following an expression IS derived showing a more exact relationship between the pertinent separator variables. As both magnetic attraction and centrifugal forces are directly proportional to the volume of the affected bodies, complications in mathematical analysis, arising from variable particle size, are avoided by considering the force per unit volume of affected material. For the magnetic force per unit volume Runolinna (3) gives the following equation: V " 1 + N(ur, - 1) uo dr (1) where ur and uo stand for the relative permeability and the permeability of vacuum, respectively, N is the demagnetization factor, B the intensity of the magnetic field, and r the distance from the face of the magnetic pole. The permeability of a specific magnetite ore can generally be considered as a constant. For ground, liberated material N can also be treated as a constant, and the first simplification can be made by writing ur-1 1=k1. 1 + N(ur - 1) uD k1. Fig. 1 shows the field intensity curves for two U-magnets of different size, but of roughly similar geometry of cross-section as plotted against the distance from the plane of the pole faces. The curves

Jan 1, 1961

Organization Place Date 1919 American Chemical Society :.... Philadelphia, Pa. Sept. 2-6 National Assn. of Stationary Engineers Huntington, W. Va. Sept. 8 American Peat Society Minneapolis, Minn. Sept. 22-24 American Iron, Steel Electrical Engineers St. Louis, Mo. Sept. 22-26 American Institute of Min. and Met. Engineers. Chicago, Ill. Sept. 22-27 American Steel Treaters' Society, First Annual Convention Chicago, Ill. Sept. 22-27 National Exposition of Chemical Industries.... Chicago, Ill. Sept. 22-27 National Safety Council Cleveland, 0. Sept. 29-Oct. 2

Jan 7, 1919

Organization Place Date 1919 American Chemical Society Philadelphia, Pa. Sept. 2-6 National Assn. of Stationary Engineers Huntington, W. Va. Sept. 8 American Peat Society Minneapolis, Minn. Sept. 22-24 American Iron, Steel Electrical Engineers St. Louis, Mo. Sept. 22-26 American Institute of Min. and Met. Engineers. Chicago, Ill. Sept. 22-27 American Steel Treaters' Society, First Annual Convention Chicago Ill. Sept. 22-27 National Exposition of Chemical Industries.... Chicago, Ill. Sept. 22-27 National Safety Council Cleveland, O. Sept. 29-Oct. 2

Jan 8, 1919

By Linn Bradley

Introduction MARKED differences of opinion have been expressed by engineers interested in cleaning iron blast-furnace gases for use in hot-blast stoves and under boilers, in reference to the advantages of a hot-dry method over a cold-wet method. One point at issue involves the sensible heat energy in the moisture contained in the gas. Some advocates of the cold-wet methods claim that the condensation and resultant removal of the greater portion of this contained moisture by wet scrubbing, spraying or similar methods, results in a saving of some of this sensible heat energy, by reason of the fact that water vapor has a high capacity for sensible heat energy and may carry from the exit of a hot-blast stove, for example, more heat units than are sacrificed or lost when the gas is cleaned by this cold-wet method. Other advantages claimed for the latter method are: That gas burns more readily when it is free from moisture in any form; that because gas is made denser by cooling and removing the moisture it has a higher calorific value than hot gas carrying moisture; and that higher flame temperatures are obtained when the gas is cleaned by the cold-wet method. A search through the available literature fails to disclose any extensive calculations or records of conditions obtained in practice, bearing upon these phases of gas cleaning. This paper deals with these problems from the standpoint of the economy of using a gas of higher flame temperatures, of improved stove design, and of economy in the gas-cleaning department. Calculations have been made which show that by cleaning the gases by a cold-wet method the sensible heat energy of the blast-furnace gases is greatly reduced; and, in general, this loss of heat energy is far greater than that lost from the stoves or boilers due to the sensible heat capacity of the water vapor if carried away by the exit gases. By making use of the

Jan 2, 1917

By H. E. Criner, M. G. Driessen

THE cyclone thickener has two important applications in wet washing plants: (1) water clarification, and (2) fine coal recovery. The thickener consists of a conical chamber into which the fluid is injected through a tangential nozzle at the periphery of the large end. The solids of the slurry are concentrated and removed from the apex of the cone while the "thinner" portion is discharged from a central tube in a flat head at the large end, fig. 1. The advantages of the cyclone thickener are that large volumes of slurry may be treated with small space requirements and that the underflow concentration may be controlled easily and readily to meet varying feed conditions. Control of Washery Water Solids Concentration: The first requirement, in the process of controlling solids concentration, is that the solids be removed from the body of circulating water at the rate at which they are introduced. If this condition is satisfied the concentration will remain at a fixed value and will not increase to uncontrollable levels. The second requirement is that the solids concentration

Jan 1, 1951

By M. G. Driessen, H. E. Criner

THE cyclone thickener has two important applications in wet washing plants: (1) water clarification, and (2) fine coal recovery. The thickener consists of a conical chamber into which the fluid is injected through a tangential nozzle at the periphery of the large end. The solids of the slurry are concentrated and removed from the apex of the cone while the "thinner" portion is discharged from a central tube in a flat head at the large end, fig. 1. The advantages of the cyclone thickener are that large volumes of slurry may be treated with small space requirements and that the underflow concentration may be controlled easily and readily to meet varying feed conditions. Control of Washery Water Solids Concentration: The first requirement, in the process of controlling solids concentration, is that the solids be removed from the body of circulating water at the rate at which they are introduced. If this condition is satisfied the concentration will remain at a fixed value and will not increase to uncontrollable levels. The second requirement is that the solids concentration

Jan 1, 1951

By George A. Laird

I. INTRODUCTION. THIS old and once famous district played, through its enormous production of silver and gold, an important part in the history of the State of San Luis Potosi. According to a pamphlet prepared under the direction of the Governor of the State, Sr. Don Blas Escontria, and presented to the visiting members of the Institute during the Mexican meeting of 1901, this district is situated 20 km. east of the city of San Luis Potosi, in a range of mountains of moderate height, extending 135 km. N. and S., and 16 km. E. and W.; and the mineralized area hitherto developed is about 600,000 sq. m. The history of the district,. as given by the record dated 1778, and formerly kept in the San Francisco convent, says that it was discovered in 1575 by Sr. Don Pedro Irarte, and adds that the city of San Luis Rey de Francisco del Potosi received its name (in allusion to the famous Potosi mines in Bolivia) by reason of the remarkable productiveness of its gold- and silver-mines in the first period of their exploration, during which they paid to the Crown, as " quintos " (the fifth part of the product), $97,000,000, as appears from the accounts of the royal treasury. The amount of the quientos paid during the " bonanza period " of 80 years was $72,000,000. The larger sum first mentioned probably represents a longer series of years. But either will suffice to indicate the great wealth of the mines. In 1663, the decadence of the industry began with the caving¬ in of several mines, concerning which the record of 1778, al¬ready cited, says, in substance, that on Good Friday one of the owners in the enterprise, in view of the unfavorable prospect of a lawsuit in which he was engaged, set fire to the timbers supporting the underground galleries and workings of the San

Jan 1, 1905

By James C. M. Li, J. Weertman

James C. M. Li (United States Steel Covp.)—The author has discovered a single analytical relation between the minimum, or the steady-state, creep rate and the applied stress confirming a statement made earlier by orn" that such relation should exist and should reduce to the power law at low-stress levels and to the exponential law at high-stress levels. However, as pointed out by the author, all the available theories of creep are not adequate to explain such a single relation. Inspired by such a statement, I have made a suggestion concerning a possible explanation13 of the new relation. This is based on the concept that the rate-controlling step is the cooperative motion of a short dislocation segment. The nature of and the reason for the cooperation have been discussed13 as well as the reason why the motion of the dislocation could be controlled by the mobility of the short segments. A natural short segment has been proposed13 to be the node formed at the intersection of two dislocations. The reason why the node may contain only a few atoms has not been discussed and the application of the proposed model to all the metals and alloys reported in this paper has not been attempted. It seems appropriate to include these in this discussion. The model was partly inspired by the substructure recently observed in the electron microscope on creep specimens. One such example is shown in Fig. 48 in Darken's Campbell Memorial Lecture. The substructure is a collection of dislocation intersections and irregular networks. No pileups have ever been observed in such specimens. A closer look at the network indicates that one set of dislocations is more straight than the other set sug- gesting that the other set may be mobile in the plane of the net. Since, for the network to survive the creep deformation, some dislocation reaction has to take place at the intersection of the two sets of dislocations, the mobile dislocation, even if it can slip in the plane of the net, will have difficulty in moving at these intersections. To illustrate, an idealized network is shown in Fig. 9. The thin lines represent the set of dislocations which are mobile and can slip in the plane of the net except at the nodes which are formed at the intersection of the two sets of dislocations. The other set of dislocations, represented by the thick lines, may have a Burgers vector which is not parallel to the plane of the net, and therefore may be immobile. Because of this nonparallel Burgers vector, the Burgers vector of the node, which is avectorial sum of the Burgers vectors of the two sets of dislocations, will also be nonparallel to the plane of the net. Therefore, the node cannot slip in the plane of the net and the set of mobile dislocations will have to drag the node along as indicated in Fig. 9. Now the problem is how many atoms could be involved in the nodes. Exact calculation of the length of the node is a difficult task especially since the length should be a steady-state length and not an equilibrium length. An estimate of the equilibrium length can be made by balancing the line tension of all the dislocations. The results would be a small fraction of the length 1 between nodes as shown in Fig. 10. In some instances such a calculation shows that the node will not be formed. But, since the calculation is only approximate, it does not rule out the possibility of the formation of a short node. In other instances the equilibrium length of the node is an appreciable fraction of I. Such a node would

Jan 1, 1963

By K. W. John, L. Mueller

The rock mechanics approach to stability problems of steep rock slopes dealt with in this article has particular reference to the concept and methods of analysis developed by the Salzburg, Austria, school of rock mechanics. These theories are based on the principal postulate of the anistropy of the technological properties of in-situ rock masses. The present approach, which is more in line with geological engineering concepts, differs distinctively from the soil mechanics and engineering geological concepts commonly practiced in the United States. PRINCIPAL ENGINEERING APPROACH TO GEOTECHNICAL PROBLEMS AVAILABLE ENGINEERING CONCEPTS At the present time two different concepts are available for engineering analysis of underground structures and foundations in different earth material: soil mechanics and rock mechanics. Of these two branches, soil mechanics is, after 40 years of initially revolutionary and more recently evolutionary development, well established. Its principal concept of replacing in-situ soils or rock masses by perfectly homogeneous substitues has resulted in many practicable methods of analysis which, if applied with judgement, have resulted in successful applications throughout the world. Conversely, rock mechanics is still in the early stages of revolutionary development. Few, if any, standard concepts or methods of analysis have been established. Opinions vary widely. At present the professional background of an investigator very often determines the engineering concept to be applied to a particular problem, rather than its actual requirements if considered objectively. This paper stresses the rock mechanics or geological engineering point of view advocated by the Salzburg group. A review of the soil mechanics concepts is considered beyond the scope of this paper. THE "SALZBURG APPROACH" TO ROCK MECHANICS The rock mechanics concept as outlined here was initiated by Stini, based upon work by sander.1 Since

Jan 1, 1963

By George E. Aiken

Modern high speed bucket wheel excavators (BWEs) can dig materials which power shovels can't handle without blasting. Yet these machines are not used in any large, open pit ore mines in the United States. American mining has been slow to use the wheel's special capabilities of high production volume at low cost, due perhaps to a traditional familiarity with shovels and draglines and/or the lack of data of BWE operation, design and cost. Of course, shovels and draglines can not be replaced by BWEs in all cases, but under suitable conditions bucket wheels can out-perform other conventional excavators and simultaneously permit significant operating savings. The latter aspect will become increasingly important to American mining men because as more low to medium grade orebodies are found in regions of thick overburden, better and cheaper ways of uncovering them must be developed. Typical of such areas are the thick alluvial fans of the Southwest and the glacial drift areas in northern regions. Much of this material would handle well with a wheel excavator without blasting, although ripping might be necessary in some cases.

Jan 1, 1966

By R. H. Winn

A method for the selection of the most suitable corrosion inhibitor for a particular system is given. The method involves the evaluation of surface passivity by means of copper ion displacement after the metal surface has been subjected to the corrosive atmosphere. The application of the method to the selection of suitable inhibitors for use in producing wells is described. Correlation with recognized laboratory tests has beet1 found to be good within the limitations of the test. The use of the test to evaluate inhibitor persistencc is described. INTRODUCTION Corrosion as it is associated with the industry shows wide variations in its qualitative as well as its quantitative aspects. This complicates the work of the corrosion engineer. In the past few years the efforts of the corrosion engineer have been further taxed by the large numbers of products being marketed as corrosion inhibitors by various manufacturers. These products are submitted to him together with a limited amount of data to support their use as inhibitors. The data are usually authentic and reliable yet all too often when these products are applied to an actual corrosive system the results are disappointing due to the ineffectiveness of the inhibitor and the corrosive system. The corrosion engineer must select a comparatively limited number of inhibitors for field trial from the large number available. The selection is usually made on the basis of a standardized laboratory test such as that adopted by the National Association of Corrosion Engineers or by field experience in an area; however, testing of this type is discouraging on large numbers of compounds, particularly in view of the specificity of environment. It has been an object of this work to devise a method which will allow the corrosion engineer to select the best inhibitor for a specific environment under field conditions. The test would of necessity be rapid and inexpensive. It would preferably eliminate the need for expensive and delicate instruments. STATEMENT OF THEORY The test as developed makes use of the fact that metal ions will be displaced from solution by metals having a more positive electrode potential. Thus, if an active iron surface is exposed to a solution of a copper salt, free copper will plate spontaneously on the iron surface as it is displaced from the salt solution by iron ions. If the iron surface is passified, as by coating with an insulating-type organic corrosion inhibitor, it is no longer capable of displacing the copper ions due to its own limited ionization. The result will be a change in the amount of copper plated upon exposure to a neutral copper salt solution. In practice it has been found possible to measure the magnitude of the alteration of the cell potential by determining the copper deposited on a standard iron surface under controlled conditions. This means that, as the film builds up, the resulting shift in the electrode potential tends to cause the iron surface to act more like a noble metal, resulting in a reduction in the cell potential to a point that copper will no longer plate spontaneously. Obviously, the salts of other metals such as silver, gold or platinum might be used for this operation; however, copper was selected because of the color difference of the plate, the comparatively low cost of copper salts and the ease of evaluation of the plated copper. Furthermore, its high cell potential provides a substantial driving energy. The determination of the copper is readily done colorimetrically by dissolving it in 5 per cent ammonium hydroxide solution containing 2 per cent potassium per-sulfate. The blue color of the copper ammonic complex ion so developed may be compared with standards prepared by dissolving known quantities of copper powder in the same reagent. In routine screening it is seldom desirable to determine the amount of copper plated. It is usually more important to determine the concentration of inhibitor required to prevent the plating of copper.

By R. W. Heins, N. Street

An investigation was made of the Rehbinder-Kuznetsov pendulum as an instrument to aid in the study of rock drillability and of the effect of surface active agents on rock drillability. The "critical weight", i.e., the pendulum weight at greatest sensitivity, was determined for several solids and it was shown that a change in surface environment changed the maximum value of the apparent hardness but not the critical weight, and the critical weight increased with increase of hardness of the solid used. Using silver halides as the solid material, and solutions of either silver nitrate or the appropriate alkali halide, it was shown that there is a hardness maximum at the zero point of charge of the particular silver halide. INTRODUCTION The development of relative hardness measurement by the method of damped oscillations, or what has been called the pendulum sclerometer, is due largely to the Russian workers P. A. Rehbinder and V. D. Kuznetsov and their co-workers.1,2 The apparent simplicity of the method has led to its use in a number of fields, particularly those where relative hardness has to be determined on a brittle solid. As will be shown, the simplicity of the method belies its complexities. THEORY OF THE PENDULUM SCLEROMETER The operation of the pendulum is quite simple. Make a sharp point such as a diamond, hardened steel or tungsten carbide, as the fulcrum of a pendulum, with the center of gravity of the system below the point of support. The attenuation of this pendulum is a function only of air friction, provided no fragmentation, breakage or other work is performed by the point. However, when the solid surface breaks or disintegrates under the point, and the latter penetrates the solid, part of the energy of oscillation is absorbed in the work of creating new surface, and the rate of attenuation increases. In the case of brittle solids, the point of the pendulum produces fragmentary particles, whereas the point produces plastic deformation in a plastic solid; but in both cases damping occurs. This pendulum damping is a function of the hardness or strength of the solid. Whereas a pendulum oscillating on a hard material attenuates primarily by air friction, in the case of a soft material, the points penetrate the surface of the solid, producing new surface, and the pendulum damps much faster. Thus the attenuation rate is a function of the hardness or strength of a material in both plastic and brittle substances. Russian workers initially used a single support for the pendulum, but this created many problems because of oscillation of the pendulum in more than one plane. A revised version used two points, or sometimes a prism as support, successfully confining oscillation to one plane. The version using two points was constructed and used throughout this investigation, making the recording of the attenuation as a function of time relatively easy. That both points should be in contact with the solid during the damping is implied. Rehbinder (c.f. Kuznetsov2) proposed that the hardness H as measured by this method could be expressed by a quantity which is inversely proportional to the relative initial rate of attenuation of amplitude. where H = hardness parameter (arbitrary units) a, = initial amplitude da/dt = rate of attenuation of amplitude with time. In the simplest case of damping with a constant logarithmic decrement, H can be regarded as a constant for the duration of the whole damped oscillation process. That is

Jan 1, 1966

By P. D. White, J. T. Moss, J. S. McNiel

Results of experimental work on the in situ combustion process were first published in this country in 1953' when Kuhn and Koch described results of a three-well test in Jefferson County, Okla. Shortly there-after Grant and Szasz2 described field studies in Nowata County, Okla., in which several modifications of the basic combustion process were investigated by injection of various oxidizing gas mixtures other than air. In the past five years speculation concerning this method of oil recovery has continued, with a number of interesting papers on various aspects of in situ combustion appearing in the literature3,4,5,6,7. However, only one of these' provided actual engineering information on pattern-type field experiments. The primary objectives of the Oklahoma three-well test were to check operation of specially designed electrical ignition equipment and evaluate problems associated with initiation of combustion in a natural oil sand reservoir. Immediately following successful completion of this test in the Pontotoc sand, plans were activated for a second field experiment to be conducted in the same sand a short distance away. The objective of this second field test1 as to establish a relationship between field observations and information derived from laboratory experimentation and computations. Secondary objectives of the test were to develop operating tech- niques and define operating problems, and to obtain information that would assist in the economic and engineering appraisals of the process. Careful planning was required since this test was designed with the hope of providing basic information on the characteristics and operation of a combustion drive. It was necessary to include test facilities which would not only permit precise control and measurement of the process variables but would also provide sufficient flexibility of control to insure that variables in the combustion process could be studied during the course of the test under a wide range of conditions. In order to accomplish these objectives elaborate instrumentation and several control wells were included in the design of the test installation. This type installation was felt to be well suited for an experimental study, but was in no respect intended as a counterpart of a commercial-scale operation. PRELIMINARY LABORATORY WORK An important objective of the field experiment, as stated previously, has been to obtain reliable data on operating variables which might be compared with similar data obtained in laboratory combustion tests. The value of successful correlations between quantities that can be measured in the laboratory and those obtained in a full-scale commercial venture has been well established for other industrial processes. The difficulty of following a process underground should make such correlations even more essential here. Also. approaching the field test phase of development of in situ combustion, it was considered desirable to precede design of test equipment with laboratory combustion studies under a variety of conditions to establish likely ranges of variables. These included temperature, air injection rate, frontal advance rate and produced gas composition.

By N. A. D. Parlee, M. M. A. El-Naggar, G. 8. Horsley

The apparatus was of a modified Sieverts type1&apos;2 with a reaction tube designed to function also as the cell component of an oxygen pressure gage. The reaction tube assembly is shown in Fig. 1 and described in Table I. The main body is a 1-in.-OD 15 mol pct calcia-stabilized zirconia tube. The ground-glass joint, g, the male part of which carried a prism for optical pyrometer use, was connected to the remainder of the Sieverts apparatus. The calibration of the cell (at its 1000°K operating temperature) for internal oxygen pressures (PO2in) in the range 0.2 to 10 9 atm was made against internal air pressures measured by mercury manometer and McLeod gage. At very low po2in values down to l<Tn atm the performance was checked by comparing pQ calculated from electromotive force measurement when the apparatus was filled with a) pure CO gas and b) a CO-CO2 mixture of the ratio CO-CO2 = 1:0.398, with Po, values calculated from the equilibrium constants of the following reactions at 1000°K:

Jan 1, 1968

By F. W. Bowdish

Analysis of data on the equilibrium exchange of sodium ions from salt solutions for calcium ions, from various fractions of an oxidized calcareous iron ore from Lorraine, France, strongly suggests that the calcium may be attached to the solid by only one of its bonds. Nearly equal values were found for the equilibrium expression from data covering concentration ranges of 1000 fold for the salt and 235 fold for the ion-exchangeable calcium. Differences indicated between the exchangeable calcium contents of the slime and the sandy portions of the ore, as well as the equilibrium relationship itself, are of importance in the flotation of the ore. During an experimental program on the flotation of oxidized calcareous iron ores from Lorraine, France, ion-exchangeable calcium was found in the ore. Because this source of calcium ions, if not controlled, could thwart all efforts at flotation, an extensive study was made of the phenomenon. The part of that study reported here was to obtain data on the equilibrium established between ore solids and solutions of sodium chloride, and to analyze the data to try to understand better the physical chemistry of the exchange. The ore contains oolites of goethite and quartz grains embedded in a matrix consisting of calcite and a brown cement believed to be the residue from oxidation of the silicate minerals found in fresh unoxidized ore. When ground, a substantial fraction of the ore becomes a fine slime in which is concentrated more than half of the alumina content of the ore. It is believed that the alumina occurs as unidentified clay minerals with which most of the ion-exchange capacity of the ore is associated. A preliminary experiment on the exchange of ions from the ore for sodium ions from solutions of NaCl showed that calcium was about ten times as abundant as magnesium in the exchange solutions. Thus calcium was the predominant ion in causing difficulties with flotation, and it was the only one for which data was obtained in this study. It is believed that the omission of magnesium ion exchange from consideration does not invalidate the results. It is possible, however, that inclusion of magnesium in the analyses and calculations or its prior elimination from the samples would have improved the consistency of the results. EXPERIMENTAL Data about the equilibrium exchange of sodium from solutions for calcium from the solids were obtained using two different samples of material. The solids

Jan 1, 1963