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Minerals Beneficiation - Sponge Iron at AnacondaBy Frederick F. Frick
SPONGE iron as produced at Anaconda is a fine, -35 mesh, impure product, about 50 pct metallic iron, obtained from the reduction of iron calcine at a temperature of 1850°F by use of coke resulting from slack coal. The metallic iron particles are bulky and spongey and precipitate copper readily and rapidly from a copper sulphate solution. Investigation of the treatment of Greater Butte Project, Kelley, ore at Anaconda early showed the desirability of using sponge iron as a precipitant for the copper in solution resulting from desliming of the ore in a dilute sulphuric acid solution. Anaconda had done considerable work on the production of sponge iron in 1914 for use as a precipitant of copper from leach solutions. Some success and considerable experilence were attained at the time. indicating that, sponge iron might be successfully made by a modification of the process used in 1914, a batch process in which an iron calcine was reduced by means of soft coke, resulting from noncoking coal, in a Bruckner-type revolving horizontal cylindrical furnace widely used 50 years ago. The coke and calcide formed the bed in the Bruckner furnace, which was rotated at about 1 rpm. The bed was brought to a temperature of about 1800°F by means of an oil flame over the surface. Although results were reasonably satisfactory, they did not warrant full development of the process at that time. A good deal of work has been done in the last 50 years on the production of sponge iron. The objective in some cases has been the production of a precipitant for copper from solution, but the bulk of the work has been done for the production of open-hearth steel furnace stock. The production of an open-hearth stock presents two problems rather than one: first, producticon of the sponge iron, and second, what is perhaps of equal difficulty and importance, conversion of the sponge iron into a form suitable for use in the open-hearth furnace. So far as is known to the writer, none of the sponge iron processes tried in the past have proved to be economically feasible. However, Anaconda had a combination of conditions appearing to justify an attempt to produce sponge iron which would serve for the leach-precipitation-float process. It was thought that the process used in 1914, if changed to a continuous one, might work out satisfactorily. The following favorable conditions at Anaconda justified the investigation: 1—A sufficient tonnage of good grade iron calcine resulting from the roasting of a pyrite concentrate in one of the acid plants, at substantially no cost. 2—Reasonably cheap natural gas. 3-—The fact that there was no need for production of a high grade product. 4— The fact that there was no need for obtaining a consistently high reduction of' the iron in calcine. A small revolving Bruckner-type furnace about 2 ft ID by 4 ft long was set up for early pilot work at the research building. This pilot furnace showed that a satisfactory product could be obtained at reasonable cost. It also indicated a marked advantage in preceding the reduction furnace with a furnace of similar size and capacity for preheating and roasting out any residual sulphur from the feed. The small furnace was operated for several months, various details of the process were worked out. and sponge iron was produced to supply a pilot LPF plant which treated 300 lb of Kelley ore pel- hr. Later a second pilot furnace 5 ft in diam and 12 ft long inside was set up at our reverberatory furnace building. This furnace confirmed the data of the small furnace and gave a basis for design of the final plant. At Anaconda a pyrite concentrate, running about 48 pct S, is recovered from copper concentrator tailings by flotation. This concentrate is roasted to sulphur of 3 pct or less at the Chamber acid plant. The iron calcine contains about 57 pct Fe and 18 pct insoluble. The iron calcine feed, as mentioned before, is re-roasted and preheated in a reroast furnace preceding the reduction furnace. Both are of the Bruckner type. The reroasted calcine is fed into the reduction furnace at 800" to 1000°F along with 30 pct slack coal. In the feed end of the furnace the volatile is burned from the slack, giving a soft coke which readily serves for reduction of the iron. Hard metallurgical coke will not serve the purpose. since it does not reduce CO readily at a temperature of 1850°F. All indications are that the actual reduction of the iron is accomplished by carbon monoxide below the surface of the bed, which is 30 in. deep at its center. Apparently there is a constant interchange: Fe²O³ + 3CO = 2Fe - 3CO², CO² + C = 2CO Actually iron oxide is reduced by CO at somewhat lower temperature than the 1850 °F used in the process. but this temperature is necessary to obtain a satisfactory rate of furnace production. The furnace atmosphere is generally reducing, and typical blue carbon monoxide flames satisfactorily cover the bed. Gas flames from four 3-in. Denver Fire Clay Inspirator burners are played directly on the bed, which is slowly cascaded by the 1 rpm of the furnace. An excess of coke is necessary to assure maintenance of good reducing conditions in the furnace bed. Part of this coke is recovered for re-use.
Jan 1, 1954
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The Felder Uranium Project _ Renewed OperationsBy K. E. Barrett
Exxon owns a uranium mill and holds two mining leases in Live Oak County, Texas, about halfway between San Antonio and Corpus Christi. The properties make up the Felder Uranium Operations which was reopened earlier this year. Exxon held an oil, gas, and other minerals lease on the J. C. Felder tract, which was adjacent to a relatively shallow uranium discovery by Susquehanna-Western, Inc. on the Marrs-McLean lease immediately south of the Felder property. Drilling in 1967 and 1968 confirmed the presence of reduced uranium mineralization in the basal sand unit of the Oakville formation on the Felder tract, which formed the major part of the roll-front deposit. In 1969 Exxon and Susquehanna-Western, Inc. entered into a sale and purchase agreement which provided for Susquehanna to mine and process Felder ore and purchase recovered uranium. Susquehanna moved an alkaline-leach mill from Wyoming, erected it on the Ray Point property, and placed it into operation late in 1970. Susquehanna mined and processed ore from the Felder and McLean properties through March 1973. Susquehanna ceased operations in March 1973. Exxon then acquired the mill and mill property. Exxon also purchased the mineral rights to the McLean lease, re-negotiated a mining lease for that property, and carried out shut-down programs for the mining and mill areas in the fall of 1973. The project was put on a standby basis until late 1973, when Exxon initiated mine feasibility studies for the project. MINE PLANNING EVALUATION The feasibility study for reopening the Felder Project began in late 1975 and was not completed until late 1976. I will discuss several areas of the feasibility study that required additional work prior to making the decision to renew operations. Ore Reserves Preparations for estimating the ore reserves began with the re-evaluation of more than 1500 natural radioactivity logs from exploration and pre-development drilling that had been completed on the property. These gamma ray logs of non-core rotary drill holes were the principal source of data used in making the estimate. Chemical assays of cores from the deposit were also used in the reserve determination. Electric resistivity and self-potential logs were made along with the gamma ray log. In December 1975 an additional core drilling project was undertaken to confirm the in-place density and radiometric equilibrium characteristics of the ore deposits. Comparison of chemical assays of cores with the U308 values calculated from the logs showed that the unoxidized ores were in radiometric equilibrium. In contrast, cores from anomalies occurring in near surface, weathered, and oxidized zones were in radiometric disequilibrium. Several important decisions were made in developing a mine plan or schedule of production from the Felder and McLean ore bodies. Disposal of Produced Mine Water: The ore bodies of the Felder Uranium Project occur at a point below the ground water table. The ore zones to be mined must first be dewatered to allow removal of mineralized material. In the open pit operations, this is accomplished by maintaining a perimeter ditch around the periphery of the open pit, allowing the interior of the pit to drain and collect into a sump and be pumped from the mine. In addition to anticipated water production from future mining operations, approximately 200M gallons of water was contained in three open pits left from prior mining operations. In two of these existing pits, the water was to be removed and disposed to allow for planned backfilling of waste material into these pits. The third pit would also have to be drained to allow continued mining of an area left from the prior operations. Essentially no ground water information was available for this area. The only data available was water production history from Susquehanna's mining operation. Two water wells were drilled early in 1976 on the Felder lease for use in obtaining hydrological data. A long term draw-down test was performed by pumping one water well and measuring water level drawdown in both the pumped well and the observation well. From these data, values for permeability and storage coefficient were calculated. These data were then used in modeling the aquifer to allow calculation of water influx into the mining area versus time. Once a schedule of water production, including the stored volume in the existing pits was calculated, alternate solutions for disposal were evaluated. The first system evaluated was a series of deep injection wells. The wells were designed to inject at a depth of approximately 3500 feet. Again very little information concerning reservoir characteristics of the receiving sand units was known. Using assumed values for reservoir permeability and storage coefficients, an injection well system was designed to allow for disposal of produced mine water. The biggest
Jan 1, 1979
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Institute of Metals Division - Ordering and Magnetic Heat Treatment of the 50 Pct Fe-50 Pct Co AlloyBy G. P. Conard, R. C. Hall, J. F. Libsch
The 50 pct Fe-50 pct Co alloy undergoes a transformation from disorder to an ordered structure of the CsCl type reportedly in the vicinity of 732OC. During this process, the coercive force goes through a maximum, apparently as a result of strains associated with the coherent nucleation and growth reaction. This magnetic alloy also shows a marked increase in the ratio of residual to saturation induction, which is associated with annealing to a high degree of order with the continuous application of a magnetic field. The increase in ratio can be explained on the basis of a decrease in 90' domain boundaries and, perhaps, by an increase in anisotropy resulting from lattice distortion. THE 50 pct Fe-50 pct Co alloy undergoes a disorder-order transformation which has been reported to occur in the vicinity of 732°C1,2 The ordered structure is the CsCl type.' This magnetic alloy also shows a marked increase in the ratio of residual to saturation induction as a result of heat treatment in a magnetic field, sometimes called a response to magnetic anneal.'-' The purpose of this investigation was to study the course of the ordering reaction, the nature of the response to .heat treatment in a magnetic field, and the relation, if any, between ordering and the response. Procedure The method of approach in this investigation was to produce an initial structure as completely disordered as possible and then gradually to order the alloy by isothermal anneals at various temperatures under different conditions of the applied magnetic field. Magnetic, magnetostriction, and X-ray analyses were of primary importance in determining the property and structural changes resulting from the isothermal anneals. Rings of the 50 pct Fe-50 pct Co alloy were prepared from the elemental powders by a powder metallurgy technique, further details of which may be found in ref. 7. The initial structure was produced by annealing the specimens for ½ hr at 1000°C, cooling to and holding for ½ hr at 900°C (in the a range above the ordering temperature), and water quenching. Isothermal anneals were performed at 600°, 675°, 720°, and 740°C. For example, rings were heated to 600°C, held for a predetermined period of time, and cooled by natural cooling at a rate slightly slower than an air cool (average of 20" to 25°C per min). The tests (magnetic, etc.) were made after each heat treatment. All high temperature treatments were performed in a purified hydrogen atmosphere. The treatments at the various temperatures were carried out under one or more conditions of an applied field including 1—no field, 2—field of 20 oersteds applied on cooling only, and 3—field of 20 oersteds applied continuously during heating, holding, and cooling. Magnetic measurements were made using the standard Rowland ring technique8 with a maximum field strength of 100 oersteds. The magnetization curve, induction at 100 oersteds (B.), residual induction (Bt), and coercive force (Hc) were determined. All magnetic analysis data were based on an average of the results from three rings. A strain gage technique9 as used for the measurement of magnetostriction. The X-ray determination of the relative amount of ordered phase present was made on the ring specimen used for magnetic measurement. This was done by the back-reflection method using a rotating specimen (because of the large grain size) with unfiltered CoKa radiation and a 7 hr exposure time. Intensity measurements of the ordered line (300) were made by comparing visually the films so obtained with standard films prepared by exposing for different lengths of time a specimen given a long time anneal (high degree of order). Results In all instances the saturation induction (induction at 100 oersteds) was found to increase slightly with annealing time. This effect was small and appears to be the increase in saturation induction to be expected on ordering.10-13 The residual induction behavior was markedly influenced by the field condition during annealing, Figs. 1, 2. For the condition of no applied field, the ratio of residual to saturation induction remained essentially constant for short annealing times but showed a significant increase at longer times. With increasing annealing temperature, less time was required to produce this increase in the ratio. In the case of the 600°C anneals, the increase did not occur until approximately 20 hr, Fig. I, while on annealing at 740°C the increase was immediate, Fig. 2. Slight decreases in the ratio may be observed at 100 hr for specimens treated at 720°C and at 1 hr for those treated at 740°C. Specimens annealed in a field of 20 oersteds showed a residual to saturation induction ratio consistently higher than that for the specimens annealed without the field. The first anneal with the field (¼ hr) caused an abrupt increase in the ratio at all temperatures; thereafter, the increase in the ratio was generally similar for specimens annealed
Jan 1, 1956
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Core Analysis - The Kobe Porosimeter and the Oilwell Research PorosimeterBy Carrol M. Beeson
Reasons are given for using a Boyle's-law porosimeter in conducting core analysis for either routine or research purposes. Among other things, it is pointed out that such a porosimeter permits the measurement of all basic properties on the same sample, thereby eliminating the sources of error inherent in the use of adjacent samples. References are made to investigations of gas adsorption on various porous materials, to show that the use of helium in Boyle's-law porosimeters reduces to negligible proportions the error due to the adsorption or desorption of the operating gas. Two Boyle's-law instruments are described. which permit accurate and rapid measurements of porosity. Schematic sketches and explanation:; are included, along with derivations of equations required in performing precise determinations. Summaries of data obtained during calibration are tabulated and analyses of the data are resented as indications of the precision and accuracy of each device. Comparisons are also shown for measurements made with each of the instruments on the same test pieces and cores. INTRODUCTION An accurate porosimeter, operating on the principle of Boyle's law. is of considerable value in the analysis of cores for either routine or research purposes. This is due primarily to the fact that the measurement of porosity with such an instrument leaves the sample free of contamination by any liquid. When used in conjunction with an extraction apparatus' for determining oil and water saturations, a Boyle's-law porosimeter permits the measurement of all basic properties on the same sample. This eliminates the sources of error inherent in the use of adjacent samples, or the necessity of determining porosity after all other properties have been obtained. Large errors may result from combining measurements made on adjacent samples in order to obtain a single property. This type of error is definitely involved when oil and water are measured with one sample, and the pore vo1ume is measured with an adjacent one. Furthermore, the source of error would be present to some extent, even if the analyst could choose the samples so they were truly adjacent from a geological standpoint. The use of adjacent samples in routine core analysis also necessarily decreases the probability of correlating core properties. For example, the chance of correlating the "irreducible" interstitial-water saturation with permeability, is bound to be greatly reduced by measuring these properties on "adjacent" samples. For research purposes, amplification is scarcely required concerning the greater flexibility of a method for measuring porosity which leaves the core free of contamination by any liquid. Even under those circumstances which require that the core be saturated with a liquid, a previous measurement of porosity with a gas is useful in determining the degree of saturation that has been attained in the process. Furthermore, for comparable accuracy, porosity usually may be determined more rapidly with a gas than with a liquid. This advantage of the Boyle's-law instrument is most outstanding when the determination time is compared with that required in obtaining porosity by evacuation of the core followed by saturation with a liquid of known density. Several porosimeters which operate on the principle of Boyle's law have been described2,3,4,5,6,7 in the literature. No comparison will be attempted between those instruments and the ones described herein. Before helium gas became readily available, Boyle's-law porosimeters were subject to an appreciable error due to the adsorption of the operating gas on the surface of the core solids. There is considerable direct and indirect evidence in the literature to support the contention that the adsorption of helium on porous solids is negligible at room temperature. In discussing the use of Boyle's-law porosimeters, Washburn and Bunting2 stated that "for most ceramic bodies dry air is a satisfactory gas, but hydrogen will be required in some instances. Helium could, of course, be employed for all types of porous materials at room temperatures or above." Howard and Hulett8 obtained evidence that the adsorption of helium was negligible at room temperatures, even on activated carbon ; for the density measured with this gas was unaffected by changes in pressure or by changes in temperature from 25 °C to 75 °C. For oil-well cores, Taliaferro, Johnson, and Dewees" obtained lower porosities with helium than with air, but apparently did not study helium adsorption. From the work of these investigators, it follows that the use of helium in Boyle's-law porosimeters reduces the error due to gas adsorption to negligible proportions. This makes it possible to construct instruments which permit the determination of porosity with (1) a high degree of accuracy, (2) with great rapidity, and (3) without contamination. THE KOBE POROSIMETER The fundamental design of the Kobe Porosimeter was developed by Kobe, Inc., which firm built about 12 of the instruments during 1936 and 1937. Since that time, seven or eight more have been constructed with their permission, making a total of about 20 that have been put into operation.
Jan 1, 1950
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Institute of Metals Division - Magnesium-Rich Corner of the Magnesium-Lithium-Aluminum System (Discussion, p. 1267a)By C. E. Armantrout, J. A. Rowland, D. F. Walsh
THE close-packed-hexagonal structure of mag-J- nesium is converted to a ductile and malleable body-centered-cubic lattice by the addition of lithium in excess of 10 pct. Further, the density of magnesium or magnesium-base alloys is decreased by additions of lithium. The practical possibilities of such alloys as a basis for uniquely light, malleable, and ductile structural materials were pointed out by Dean in 1944' and by Hume-Rothery in 1945.2 It was apparent to these investigators, however, that more complex compositions would be required if strengths sufficient for structural applications were to be developed in these alloys. In a search for strengthening additions, various investigators w have examined a number of the ternary and more complex alloys containing magnesium and lithium. An investigation of the fundamental characteristics of these alloys was undertaken by the Bureau of Mines. The investigation was initiated with a study of the magnesium-rich corner of the equilibrium diagram for the ternary system, Mg-Li-Al. The following data from published investigations of Mg-Li-A1 alloys were available: 1—a description of isothermal sections at 20" and 400°C through the Mg-Li-A1 constitution diagram by F. I. Shamrai;' 2—a diagram by P. D. Frost et al." showing approximate phase relationships at 700°F for a number of the Mg-Li-A1 alloys; and 3—diagrams showing the constitution at 500" and 700°F for the Mg-Li-A1 alloy system published by A. Jones et al.' Where compositions and temperatures permit comparison, these diagrams show disagreement. The 700°F isotherms of Frost and Jones differ only in the placement of the phase boundaries. But Sham-rai's 400°C (752°F) isotherm shows a variation in phases as well as in phase boundaries. Although rigid comparison of these different isothermal sections might not be justifiable, it seems impossible to reconcile Shamrai's construction with the isotherms of Frost or Jones. The isothermal sections presented in this paper were prepared to determine compositions which might be suitable for age hardening and to develop the general slope and placement of the various phase boundaries in the magnesium-rich corner of the diagram. Sections at 375", 200°, and 100°C were selected for investigation. In constructing these sections, the solubility of aluminum in magnesium, as reported by W. L. Fink and L. A. Willey Vn 1948, was used at the binary Mg-A1 boundary and the solubility of lithium in magnesium was obtained from the equilibrium diagram for that system as reported by G. F. Sager and B. J. Nelson" in the same year. The solubility of magnesium in lithium was determined experimentally and conforms in general to data reported by P. Saldau and F. Shamrai." Parameters for AlLi and MgI7A1, were taken from American Society for Testing Materials X-ray diffraction data cards. Experimental Procedures Although the isothermal sections presented in this paper are not unusually complex, the experimental techniques involved in their construction are made extremely difficult by the relatively high vapor pressure of lithium and the great chemical activity of both magnesium and lithium. Because of these characteristics, which make precise control of the composition of equilibrium-treated filings practically impossible, the disappearing phase method was used in preference to the parametric method in conjunction with metallographic studies. The alloys used in this investigation were melted and cast in an atmosphere of helium using a tilting-type furnace which enclosed a steel crucible and mold in a single unit. Each portion of the charge (500 to 600 g) was cleaned carefully just before placing it in the crucible; and the charge, crucible, and entire melting apparatus were evacuated and then washed with grade A helium while preheating to approximately 100°C. The alloys were melted and chill cast in an atmosphere of helium. Alloys prepared in this way were relatively free from inclusions and a fluxing treatment was considered unnecessary. The cylindrical ingots obtained were scalped and then reduced 96 pct in area by direct extrusion, yielding % in. diam rod. Sections of the rod, approximately 3 in. long, were given equilibrium heat treatments and then sampled for metallographic examination, X-ray diffraction study, and chemical analysis. The surface of each equilibrium-treated rod was machined to a depth sufficient to insure removal of contaminated material before samples for chemical analysis or X-ray diffraction study were obtained, and all decisions on microstructure were based on the examination of the central portion of the metallographic specimen. All specimens homogenized at 375°C were analyzed after this equilibrium heat treatment. When the composition of an alloy placed it in a critical area of the 200" or 100°C isothermal section, a check chemical analysis was made on a sample taken from the alloy specimen as-heat-treated at the particular temperature. Standard chemical procedures of gravimetric analysis were used in the determination of magnesium and aluminum; lithium, potassium, and sodium were determined by flame photometer methods
Jan 1, 1956
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PART IV - The Solubility of Nitrogen in Liquid Fe-Ni-Co AlloysBy Robert D. Pehlke, Robert G. Blossey
The solubility of nitrogen in liquid binary and ternary Fe-Ni-Co alloys has been measured by the Sieverts' method between 1550°and 1700°C. Solubility data and standard free energzes and enthalpies of solution for nitrogen in the alloys are presented. Interaction parameters are discussed and presented for binary and ternary alloys. MOST of the studies of nitrogen solubility in liquid metals have been directed toward the dilute alloys of iron. Several of these investigations have included measurements of the nitrogen solubility in Fe-Ni al10s'- and in Fe-Co alloys.435 There has been some work, however, that has extended across the e-i-" and F-CO" binaries. This investigation was undertaken to determine the nitrogen solubility in both binary and ternary alloys of the Fe-Ni-Co system. It was also hoped that the differences between earlier studies might be resolved. EXPERIMENTAL METHOD This investigation was made using a Sieverts' apparatus described previously." The nickel (99.85 pct) and cobalt (99.9 pct) were obtained from Sherritt-Gordon Mines, Ltd., and the iron (99.95 pct) was Fer-rovac-E obtained from Crucible Steel Co. Recrystal-lized alumina crucibles were used throughout the entire investigation with no evidence of crucible-melt reaction. Melt temperatures were measured with an optical pyrometer and the temperature scale calibrated against the melting points of the three pure metals. The emissivity of the melt was assumed to be a linear function of composition for all alloys, as has been shown for Fe-Ni alloys.lZ The emissivity of the pure metals at 1600°C were taken as 0.43 for iron, 0.44 for cobalt, and 0.45 for nickel. Using these emissivities, the trans mis sivity of the system was found to be 0.51 i 0.01. The Sieverts' method was used for this study and followed the procedures outlined previously.l' The individual metals were weighed to give about 100 g of alloy. The alloys were melted in the crucible under a partial pressure of argon. The system was evacuated, and the "hot volume" was measured with argon. To avoid the errors caused by vaporization, the melt was held under vacuum only long enough to ensure that all of the gas in the system had been removed. The influence of any small amount of vaporization on the "hot volume" was shown to be negligible by measuring the "hot volume" after a run. This measurement agreed with that made at the start of the run within the implicit error, 0.2 cc, caused by the limitations in accurately reading the buret. The solubility-pressure relationship was measured in the pure metals and in several alloy compositions throughout the ternary system. These measurements were made by admitting measured amounts of nitrogen to the system, and then determining the equilibrium nitrogen pressure above the melt. This method has the distinct advantage of higher accuracy, particularly at lower pressures, than measurements made by withdrawing gas from the system to reduce the pressure after determining the solubility at 1 atm nitrogen pressure. This latter method has a practical lower limit of about 0.4 atm where an increased error is encountered because the buret must be emptied to permit further measurements at lower pressures. By determining the relation between apparent solubility and pressure, it was possible to make a good estimate of the initial nitrogen content of the metal from the intercept of the solubility curve extrapolated to zero pressure.11 DISCUSSION The solubility data corrected to 1 atm nitrogen pressure are summarized in Table I. The reported solubility has been corrected for the initial nitrogen content of the alloys. The initial nitrogen contents fell between 0.0002 and 0.0010 wt pct, and were lower in the iron and nickel than in the cobalt. Sieverts' law was obeyed in all alloys at pressures up to 1 atm. Examples of this behavior are shown in Fig. 1. The reaction for solution of nitrogen is Taking the standard state as 1 wt pct N in the alloy and the reference state as nitrogen at infinite dilution in the alloy, and noting the adherence to Sieverts' law, K becomes the solubility of nitrogen in the alloy at 1 atm pressure. Thus the solubility data of Table I were used directly to calculate the standard free energy for the solution reaction. These results are also presented in Table I. The enthalpy of solution is also summarized in Table I as calculated from a form of the van't Hoff relation: Iron-Nickel System. The data for the solubility of nitrogen in liquid Fe-Ni binary alloys is presented in Fig. 2 along the with data of aito, Schenck et al.,' and Humbert and 1liott.l' The data for studies of nitrogen solubility in Fe-Ni alloys containing less than 20 pc t i'- are not presented in Fig. 2, although they are in good agreement with the present work. The results of this study are in good agreement with Schenck
Jan 1, 1967
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Part II – February 1969 - Papers - Diffusion of Carbon, Nitrogen, and Oxygen in Beta ThoriumBy D. T. Peterson, T. Carnahan
The diffusion coejTicients of carbon, nitrogen, and oxyget were determined in $ thorium over the tempernilcre range 1440" io 1715°C. The diffusion coyfiicir?zls are given by: D = 0.022 exp (-27,000/RT) jor carbo)~, D = 0,0032 exp(-l7,00Q/RTj for nitrogen, and D = u.0013 expt(-11,UOU/RT) for oxygen. Cavl~orz was found to increase the hardness of thoriunz nearly linearly with concentration over the range 100 to 1000Ppm carbon. ThORIUM has a fcc structure up to 1365°C and a bcc structure from this temperature to its melting point at 1740°C. Diffusion of carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen in bcc thorium was of interest in connection with the purification of thorium by electrotransport.' In addition, it was possible to measure the diffusion of all three of these interstitial solutes in the same bcc metal. Only in niobium, tantalum, vanadium, and a iron have all three interstitial diffusion coefficients been measured in a given bcc metal. Diffusion coefficients have been measured for carbon and oxygen in a thorium by Peterson2, 3 and for nitrogen by Gerds and Mallett.4 Activation energies for diffusion are reported by the above authors to be 38 kcal per mole for carbon, 22.5 kcal per mole for nitrogen, and 49 kcal per mole for oxygen. Values of the diffusion coefficients of carbon and nitrogen in 3 thorium have been reported by Peterson et al.' However, these were secondary results of their investigation of electrotransport phenomena in thorium and it was hoped that the present study could provide more precise data. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE The specimens used in this study were the well-known pair of semi-infinite bar type. The couple was formed by resistance butt welding two 0.54-cm-diam by 3.0-cm-long bars of thorium together under pure helium, the concentration of the solute being greater in one cylinder than that in the other. The finished couple then contained a concentration step at the weld interface and diffusion proceeded only along the axis of the rod. The thorium used in this study was prepared by the magnesium intermediate alloy method.5 The total impurity content was less than 400 ppm. The major impurities were: carbon, 100 ppm: nitrogen, 50 ppm; and oxygen. 85 ppm. The total metallic impurity content was less than 150 ppm. The high solute concentration portions of the diffusion couples were prepared by adding the solute to the high-purity thorium in a non-consumable electrode arc melting procedure. Carbon and nitrogen were added in the form of spectroscopic graphite and nitrogen gas while a Tho2 layer was dissolved by arc melting to add oxygen. High-purity thorium formed the low concentration portions in the carbon and nitrogen couples. The low oxygen portions were obtained by deoxidizing high-purity thorium with calcium for 3 weeks at 1000°C according to a method reported by Peterson.3 The high C-Th contained 400 ppm C, the high N-Th contained 400 ppm N, the high 0-Th contained 220 ppm 0, and the low 0-Th contained 25 ppm O. The high O-Th was brine-quenched from 1500°C to retain most of the oxygen in solution at room temperature. These concentration levels were all below the solubility limits in 0 thorium at 1400°C. A resistance-heated high-vacuum furnace was used to heat the couples. The samples were mounted horizontally on a tantalum support which had small grooves near each end. Spacer rods of thorium, 0.4 cm in diam, were placed in these grooves to prevent contact between the sample and the tantalum support. This arrangement should have prevented contamination of the sample by contact with the support. In further effort to reduce contamination, the oxygen diffusion couples were sealed inside evacuated outgassed tantalum cylinders lined with thorium foil. Thorium rings around each end of the samples acted as spacers in this case. Pressure during diffusion runs was about 10-6 torr after an initial outgassing stage. Temperature measurements were made by sighting on black body holes in the sample support adjacent to the samples with a Leeds and Northrup disappearing-filament optical pyrometer. Temperatures were constant during a diffusion anneal to ±5C. The observed temperatures were corrected for sight glass absorption after each diffusion run. The pyrometer was checked against a calibrated electronic optical pyrometer and a calibrated tungsten strip lamp with the electronic pyrometer being taken as the standard. All temperature readings agreed to within ±3C over the temperature range 1450" to 1690°C. Time corrections due to diffusion during heating and cooling were necessary because of the short diffusion times. The diffusion times ranged from 6 min for the oxygen sample run at 1690°C to 90 min for the carbon sample run at 1500°C. A series of temperature vs time plots were made for heating and cooling of the samples to the various diffusion temperatures. This data was then used in a method according to shewmon6 to determine the time corrections. The corrections amounted to
Jan 1, 1970
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Part XI – November 1968 - Papers - Condensation-Enhanced Vaporization Rates in Nonisothermal SystemsBy Michael Epstein, Daniel E. Rosner
Fume nucleation sufficiently close to vaporizing suvfaces can augment net vaporization rates into cooler environments. Environmental conditions favoring large vaporization rate enhancements are briefly discussed and a previous theoretical treatment of this nucleation phenomenon is generalized to account for the self-regulating effect of condensalion-heat release within the boundary layer. Despite kinetic limitations on homogeneous nucleation, and latent heat release, non-diffusive condensate removal processes appear to make possible large enhancements in steady-state vaporization rates, provided surface temperatures are well below the boiling point. When condensed phases vaporize (or dissolve) into cooler media, the diffusion-limited mass loss rate can be strongly influenced by the process of nucleation/con-densation (or precipitation) within the thermal boundary layer. This condensation process (which typically leads to mists or fumes in the case of evaporation into cooler gases) has the effect of steepening the vapor pressure profiles near the evaporating surface, since the condensation zone acts as a vapor sink. However. the resulting enhancement in the diffusion-limited evaporation rate can be estimated (as first done by Turkdogan1 for the case of molten iron/nickel alloys evaporating into helium) only if one has independent knowledge of the critical supersaturation, sCrit(T), required to homogeneously nucleate the vapor.* In a recent reformulation and generalization of the theoretical model of Ref. 1 it has been shown that, when log sCrit is approximately linear in reciprocal temperature, rather simple expressions can be derived4 for the ratio of the actual rate of vaporization j" to either the minimum (no condensation) rate j"min, or the maximum (equilibrium condensation) rate j"max In the present communication we wish to briefly report on further developments and implications of the formulation of Ref. 4, with emphasis on i) environmental conditions favoring large enhancements in vaporization rate, and ii) the self-regulatory influence of condensation heat release (neglected in Refs. 1 to 4) on predicted vaporization rates. Additionally, we take this opportunity to correct several misprints appear- ing in Ref. 4, and comment on Elenbaas's recent criticism5 of Ref. 1. MAXIMUM POSSIBLE VAPORIZATION RATE IN PRESENCE OF CONDENSATION A nonequilibrium theory is of interest because of the very large difference between the minimum (no condensation) and maximum (equilibrium condensation) vaporization rate. The magnitude of this maximum possible enhancement can be shown quite clearly by combining a result of Refs. 3 and 4 with the fact that for most liquids there is a simple relationship between the molar heat of evaporation, A, and its boiling point, i.e., A/(RTBp) = C, where the constant C, often called the Trouton ratio, takes on values not very different from 11.* More generally, for any substance (including The Trouton ratio (which for water is 13, for methane, 10, and so forth) will be recognized as the ratio of the molar entropy change upon vaporization (at TBP or Ttransf) to the unlversal gas constant R. Its near constancy reflects the fact that the change in atomic order upon vaporization depends only weakly on the kinds of molecules involved. those that sublime under ordinary conditions) we can define a characteristic transformation temperature. Ttransf, by a relation of the form Ttransf =A/(CR), and then examine the maximum possible evaporation rates as a function of how far removed from Ttransf are the surface temperature, Tw, and ambient temperature, T. Subject to the assumptions: 1) equilibrium vapor pressure, pv,eq, everywhere small compared to prevailing total pressure, p, and 2) negligible effect of condensation heat on temperature profile, the maximum enhancement ratio was found (Eq. [17], Ref. 4) to be: where, for most vapors, Nu/NuD (the ratio of heat transfer coefficient to mass transfer coefficient for the same configuration) is a number near unity.* Ex- *An alternative derivation of the Nu = NuD special case of this equation. revealing its validity for arbitrary velocity/temperature profiles in a laminar boundary layer, is given in Ref. 3. amining this result for a "Trouton substance", one obtains the results shown in Fig. 1, constructed for C = 11. Since we are concerned with vaporization enhancements (j'max/J"min > 1) at surface temperatures below Ttransf, this area of interest is shown unshaded. One notes that at a fixed ambient temperature (hence, T/TtranSf) there is a unique surface temperature, 2T , at which j"max/j"min attains its peak value; moreover, the peak enhancement ratio, see dashed locus. Fig. 1, is: (NuA/NuD)(C/4)(Ttransf/T,). Hence, if Nu = NuD, when the ambient temperature is less than 1/4 of TtranSf the peak enhancement exceeds the Trouton
Jan 1, 1969
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Iron and Steel Division - Equilibrium Between Blast-Furnace Metal and Slag as Determined by RemeltingBy E. W. Filer, L. S. Darker
ONE of the primary purposes of this investigation was to determine how far blast-furnace metal and slag depart from equilibrium, particularly with respect to sulphur distribution. In studying the equilibrium between blast-furnace metal and slag, there are two approaches that can be used. One method is to use synthetic slags, as was done by Hatch and Chipman;' the other is to equilibrate the metal and slag from the blast furnace by remelting in the laboratory. In the set of experiments here reported, metal and slag tapped simultaneously from the same blast furnace were used for all the runs. The experiments were divided into two groups: 1—a time series at each of three different temperatures to determine the t.ime required for metal and slag to equilibrate in various respects under the experimental conditions of remelting, and 2—an addition series to determine the effect of additions to the slag on the equilibrium between the metal and slag. An atmosphere of carbon monoxide was used to simulate blastfurnace conditions. The furnace used for this investigation was a vertically mounted tubular Globar type with two concentric porcelain tubes inside the heating element. The control couple was located between the two porcelain tubes. The carbon monoxide atmosphere was introduced through a mercury seal at the bottom of the inner tube. On top, a glass head (with ground joint) provided access for samples and a long outlet tube prevented air from sucking back into the furnace. The charge used was iron 6 g, slag 5 g for the time series, or iron 9 g, slag 7 % g for the addition series. This slag-to-metal ratio of 0.83 approximates the average for blast-furnace practice, which commonly ranges from about 0.6 to 1.1. A crucible of AUC graphite containing the above charge was suspended by a molybdenum wire in the head and, after flush, was lowered to the center of the furnace as shown in Fig. 1. The cylindrical crucible was 2 in. long x % in. OD. The furnace was held within &3"C of the desired temperature for all the runs. The temperature was checked after the end of each run by flushing the inner tube with air and placing a platinum-platinum-10 pct rhodium thermocouple in the position previously occupied by the crucible; the temperature of the majority of the runs was much closer than the deviation specified above. The couple was checked against a standard couple which had been calibrated at the gold and palladium points, and against a Bureau of Standards couple. The carbon monoxide atmosphere was prepared by passing COz over granular graphite at about 1200°C. It was purified by bubbling through a 30 pct aqueous solution of potassium hydroxide and passing through ascarite and phosphorus pentoxide. The train and connections were all glass except for a few butt joints where rubber tubing was used for flexibility. The rate of gas flow was 25 to 40 cc per min. As atmospheric pressure prevailed in the furnace, the pressure of carbon monoxide was only slightly higher than the partial pressure thereof in the bosh and hearth zones of a blast furnace—by virtue of the elevated total pressure therein. Simultaneous samples of blast-furnace metal and slag were taken for these remelting experiments. The composition of each is given in the first line of Table I. There is considerable uncertainty as to the significant temperature in a blast furnace at which to compare experimental results. This uncertainty arises not only from lack of temperature measurements in the furnace, but also from lack of knowledge of the zone where the slag-metal reactions occur. (Do they occur principally at the slag-metal interface in the crucible, or as the metal is descending through the slag, or even higher as slag and metal are splashing over the coke?) The known temperatures are those of the metal at cast, which averages about 2600°F, and of the cast or flush slag, which is usually about 100°F hotter. To bridge this uncertainty, remelting temperatures were chosen as 1400°, 1500" (2732°F), and 1600°C. For the time series the duration of remelt was 1, 2, 4, 8, 17, or 66 hr; crucible and contents were quenched in brine. The addition series were quenched by rapidly transferring the crucible and contents from the furnace to a close-fitting copper "mold." Of incidental interest here is the fact that the slag wet the crucible
Jan 1, 1953
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Part VI – June 1968 - Papers - Thermodynamic Properties of Interstitial Solutions of Iron-Base AlloysBy D. Atkinson, C. Bodsworth, I. M. Davidson
A geometric model of interstitial solid solutions, which has been used previously as a basis for the prediction of carbon activities in Fe-C austenite, is shown to serve also for the calculation of nitrogen activities in Fe-N austenite. The model has been developed to enable predictions to be made of the activities of an interstitial element in the presence of two host atom species. The activities calculated via the model are shown to be in satisfactory agreement with the measured values in the austenite phase for carbon in Fe-C-Co, Fe-C-Cr, Fe-C-Ni, Fe-C-~n, Fe-C-Si, and Fe-C-V alloys and for nitrogen in Fe-N-Ni alloys. The effect of the second substitu-tional solute on the logarithm of the activity of the interstitial element is expressed as the product of a constant mad the atomic concentration of that solute. The constants so derived we related to the thermo-dynamic interaction coefficients which describe the effect on the activity coefficient of carbon of an added solute element. In recent years the thermodynamic activities of carbon and nitrogen in the single-phase austenite field have been determined for iron binary alloys and for several iron-base ternary alloys. In order to extend the use of these measurements, it is desirable to be able to predict with reasonable accuracy the activities of the interstitials at compositions and temperatures other than those which have been measured experimentally. In all the systems studied to date, the interstitial elements do not conform to ideal behavior. Hence, the available data cannot be extrapolated or interpolated using the simple thermodynamic concepts of solutions. Several models have, therefore, been formulated for the purpose of predicting the activity of an interstitial element in the presence of one species of host atom. These models can be divided into the geometric1"5 and energetic6-' types. The former group is based on the assumption that at low concentrations the activity of the interstitial species is determined by a composition-dependent configurational entropy term and an excess free-energy term which is temperature-dependent but independent of composition. The purpose of this paper is to show that the treatment, based on a geometric model, can be extended to enable predictions to be made of interstitial activities in the presence of two substitutional host atom species. THE CONFIGURATIONAL ENTROPY OF MIXING ICaufman5 has shown that the configurational entropy, S,, for a binary solution comprising of a host atom species, A, and an interstitial species, I, can be expressed as: where NI is the atom fraction of the interstitial species, R is the gas constant, and (2 - 1) is the number of interstitial sites excluded from occupancy by the strain field around each added interstitial atom. The number of interstitial sites per host atom, p, is unityg for the fcc austenite solutions considered here. The configurational entropy of mixing for a ternary solution comprising two substitutional atom species, A and B, and one interstitial species, I, can be derived similarly. Let the number of atoms per mole of each of these species in the solution be represented by «a, ng, and nI. From geometric considerations, it is improbable that the addition of a few atom percent of a second host atom species will change the type of sites (i.e., octahedral) in which the interstitial atom can be accommodated in the austenite lattice. At higher concentrations (determined largely by the relative atomic radii of the atomic species present and any tendency to nonrandom occupancy of the host lattice sites) other types of interstitial sites may become energetically favorable. Restricting consideration to compositions below this limit, for 1 = 1 the number of suitable interstitial sites is given by (n + nB). However, if each interstitial atom excludes from occupancy (Z - 1) additional sites, the total number of sites available for occupation is reduced to (n + ng)/Z. The number of vacant interstitial sites is given by: The total number of recognizable permutations of the atoms must include the recognizable, different configurations of the A and B atoms on the host lattice. Assuming that these arrangements are purely random, and are not affected by the presence of the interstitial species, the total number of recognizable permutations in the ternary alloy is given by: The configurational entropy is obtained by expanding, using Stirling's approximation, and collecting like items, as:
Jan 1, 1969
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Part VIII - Communications - Redistribution of Oxygen and Iron During Zone Refining of ZirconiumBy D. Mills, G. B. Craig
ZIRCONIUM has been float-zone-refined in an electron-beam furnace and the redistribution of oxygen, iron, and tungsten has been measured. The iodide zirconium used in the present experiments initially contained both oxygen and iron in the range 100 to 200 ppm by weight, and tungsten in amounts less than 10 ppm. Float-zone refining of zirconium, using induction heating, has previously been attempted by Kneip and Betterton1 and Langeron.2 Kneip and Betterton were primarily interested in the removal of iron and nickel. They achieved some purification, with respect to both these elements, in material given up to six passes at 150 mm per hr under an argon atmosphere. Langeron reported purification for a large number of elements after four completed passes in a static vacuum system operating at pressures less than 10-6 mm of Hg and with rates of zone travel between 30 and 40 mm per hr. He did not report oxygen concentrations, but stated that there was inverse segregation of this element. westlake5 has also used a minimum of four zone passes to remove iron from zirconium. No rates or conditions were given. Belk6 has shown that tungsten contamination can occur during electron-beam melting. He reported an increase from 0.01 to 0.05 pct by weight tungsten in molybdenum after four complete zone passes. The vacuum system for the electron-beam unit used in the present investigation consisted of a single-stage rotary pump backing a liquid-air-trapped oil-diffusion pump. A pressure of less than 10-8 mm of Hg was obtained with Dow-Corning 705 fluid in the diffusion pump. In order to avoid contamination of the zirconium by evaporation from the tungsten filament, a special focusing cage4 was employed. Three rates of zone travel, 114, 38, and 4 mm per hr, were investigated, with the liquid zone moving from the bottom to the top of the bar. The bars used were 3 mm diam and the total melted length was 130 mm. Oxygen was analyzed by neutron-activation analysis using a neutron flux of 10' neutrons per sq cm per sec to form the isotope N16 by the 016 (n,p) N16 reaction. The standard deviation is quoted for each oxygen determination. The iron and tungsten analyses were performed spectrographically, and the precision is estimated to be ±6 pct. Analyses for tungsten were all below the detectable limit of 10 ppm, confirming the protection given by the focusing cage. No significant redistribution of oxygen was found at the two higher rates of zone travel. The redistribution of oxygen and iron obtained after five passes at a rate of zone travel of 4 mm per hr (1.1 x 10-4 cm per sec) is recorded in Tables I and 11. Burris, Stockman, and Dillon3 have estimated the distribution of solutes during multipass zone refining. Using their curves for an effective distribution coefficient of Keff = 1.5 and 2 for oxygen and Keff = 0.3 for iron, the expected concentrations were estimated for the present material. These are shown in Tables I and 11, along with the experimentally measured values. The calculated concentrations are based on a molten-zone length of 10 pct of the total melted length, whereas in the present experiments the molten zone was approximately 5 pct of the total melted length. The effect of zone length on solute redistribution is most pronounced after a large number of zone passes. Comparison with Pfann's published data8 for solute redistribution for various Keff's and zone lengths indicates only small differences at low numbers of completed zone passes. It is evident that the expected distribution has not been realized in the case of iron. Scrapings of material deposited on the inner surfaces of the electron-focusing cage were found to be magnetic. It is, therefore, concluded that redistribution of iron is masked by evaporation. Deposition of iron inside the focusing cage was observed at all rates of zone travel. The results of the investigation may be summarized as follows: 1) Segregation of oxygen is typical for a solute with a distribution coefficient, Keff > 1. 2) No redistribution of oxygen takes place at high rates of zone travel. 3) The distribution coefficient for oxygen lies between 1.5 and 2.0. 4) Purification with respect to iron occurs mainly by evaporation. 5) The focusing cage is effective in preventing tungsten contamination.
Jan 1, 1967
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Part X - The Influence of Additive Elements on the Activity Coefficient of Sulfur in Liquid Lead at 600°CBy A. H. Larson, L. G. Twidwell
The influence which Au, Ag, Sb, Bi, Sn, and Cu have, both individually and collectively, on the activity coefficient of sulfur in liquid lead at 600"C zuas studied by circulating a H2S-Hz gas wlixture over a specific lead alloy until equilibrium was attained. Subsequently, the H2S concentration in the equilibrium gas mixture and sulfur concentration in the condensed phase were deterruined. The elements gold, silver, and antinzony (above 8 at. pct) increased the activity coefficient of sulfur. Bismuth had no apparent effect. Tin (above 3 at. pct) and copper decreased the coefficient. The influence of an individual element, i, on sulfur is best reported as the interaction parameter, riS, which is defined as The values o these first-order interaction zus are: ESzu = —55.0. These interaction parameters are used to predict the activity coefficient of sulfur in six fouv-component alloys and one seven-component alloy. Comparisons are made with direct experimental determinations. INTERACTIONS in dilute solution have been studied by many investigators. Most of the experimental work has been confined to solute-solvent interactions in simple binary systems and solute-solute interactions in ternary systems. Dealy and pehlke"~ have summarized the available literature on activity coefficients at infinite dilution in nonferrous binary alloys and have calculated from published data the values for interaction parameters in dilute nonferrous alloys. Interaction parameters are a convenient means of summarizing the effect of one solute species on another in a given solvent. Only a few investigators have studied interactions of the nonmetallic element sulfur in a metallic solvent. They are as follows: Rosenqvist,~ sulfur in silver; Rosenqvist and Cox,4 sulfur in steel; chipman, sulfur in alloy steels; Alcock and Richardson,% ulfur in copper alloys; Cheng and Alcock,' sulfur in iron, cobalt, and nickel; Cheng and ~lcock,' sulfur in lead and tin. The only reported work on the Pb-S system in the dilute-solution region is that of Cheng and Alcock.' Their investigation involved a study of the solubility of sulfur in liquid lead over the temperature range 500" to 680°C. The results may be summarized by the following relationship: S (dissolved in lead) + Pb(1) = PbS(s) log at. %S = -3388/T + 3.511 Experimentally, it was found that Henry's law was valid up to the solubility limit of sulfur in lead, i.e., at 600°C up to 0.43 pct. Their investigation did not include the study of sulfur in lead alloys. More accurate calculations could be made in smelting and refining systems if activity coefficients of solute species could be accurately predicted in complex solutions. One of the objectives of this study was to compare the experimental data with the values calculated from the equations derived from models for dilute solutions proposed by wagner9 and Alcock and Richardson. A temperature of 600°C was chosen as the experimental temperature to attain reasonable reaction rates and to minimize volatilization of the condensed phase. EXPERIMENTAL Materials. The Pb, Au, Ag, Sb, Bi, Sn, and Cu used for preparation of the alloys were American Smelting and Refining Co. research-grade materials. All were 99.999+ pct purity except the antimony and tin which were 99.99+ pct. The initial alloys prepared for this study consisted of twenty-one binary alloys, eleven ternary alloys, and one six-component alloy. The constituent elements were mixed for each desired alloy and were placed in a crucible machined from spectrographically pure graphite. The crucible was placed in a vycor tube which was evacuated with a vacuum pump and gettered by titanium sponge at 800°C for 8 to 12 hr. After the gettering was completed, the chamber containing the titanium was sealed and removed. The remaining sample chamber was placed in a tube furnace at 800°C for 2 hr and quenched in cold water. The final operation consisted of homogenization of the alloy for 1 to 2 weeks at a temperature just below the solidus for the individual system. The resulting master alloys were sectioned into small pieces and a random choice made for individual equilibrations. Cobalt sulfide (Cogs8) used to control the gas atmosphere in the circulation system was prepared by passing dried HzS for 24 hr over a Co-S mixture heated to 700°C in a tube furnace. This material was then mixed with cobalt metal to give a two-phase mixture which, when heated in hydrogen to a particular temperature, produced a desired H2S/H2 gas atmosphere in the circulation system. A Cu2S-Cu mixture also used in this study was prepared in a comparable manner. Apparatus for Equilibrium Measurements. The experimental technique of this study required apparatus
Jan 1, 1967
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Part VII - Papers - C. Norman CochranBy S. Nakajima, H. Okazaki
Quantitatiue studies of the deformation texture in drawn tungsten wives were made by the X-vay dif-fractottletetr. Experimental results show that the diffraction Intensities are equal to tilose pvedicted from the (1 10). fiber lexlure but the angxla), spreads of. diffraction peaks in the pole distribution curres are different for different diffraction planes and directions. For this reason a modified (110) fiber lextuve model, in which a kind of anisotropy is assumed, is proposed to explain the results. According to this model the poles lying on a line directing front the (110) to the (110) poles in the (1 10) standard stereograpllic projection should show spreads which are different from those lyitlg on a line directing from the (001) to the (001) poles, which is confirmed by the experiments. The anisolvopy and the spveads of the pole positions are large at the outer part of the wires and decrease gradually lowards the inside of the wire. The possibilily of occurrence of such anisolropy in irrelals with fcc stvuctures is discltssed. THE deformation texture of drawn tungsten wires has been assumed by different investigators to be the simple ( 110) fiber texture.' Recently, however, Leber2,3 has shown that a swaged tungsten rod has a cylindrical texture. It changes gradually to the (110) fiber texture by drawing through dies. However, even after drawing to 0.25 mm in diam, the cylindrical texture can still be found in wires together with the (110) fiber texture. This was deduced from the pole figures obtained from the longitudinal section of these wires. Use was made also of quantitative measurements of the pole distribution curves. Leber stated that the angular spread of the pole distribution curves (henceforward called dispersions) are quite different for (400) 45 deg and (400) 90 deg: the former is always larger than the latter. This inequality is accompanied by deviations of the diffraction intensities from the theoretical values for the ( 110) fiber texture. Bhandary and cullity4 have reported similar results on iron wire and explained them by assuming a cylindrical texture. Both Leber3 and Bhandary4 used only the results of the (400) reflection for the determination of the dispersion. The pole figures found by Leber3 and by Rieck5 are largely different. The model given by Leber to explain the effects is in the authors' opinion in some respects unsatisfactory, especially if one looks at other than the (400) reflections. Intensities and dispersions of diffraction peaks are conclusive factors for the determination of the fine structure in wire textures. For this reason we studied them extensively to come to a model which is more suitable to fit the facts. In the following, after giving the experimental set-up, we report about measurements of X-ray diffraction on drawn tungsten wires. Different models to describe the experimental results will be discussed. EXPERIMENTAL GO-SiO2-A12O3 doped tungsten wires drawn to 0.18 mm in diam were used for the measurements. The wires were chemically etched to various diameters down to 0.03 mm. Measurements were carried out for the different wires in order to determine the dependence of the texture on the radius. The wires were cut to pieces of 10 mm length and fixed with paste closely against each other on a flat, polished glass plate. Parallelism of the wires with the surface of the glass plate should be adequate. For the diffraction studies three different X-ray sources were applied, respectively, giving the CuK,, FeK,, and FeKp emission. The measurements were carried out with a diffrac-tometer with a GM counter. The latter was fixed to a certain diffraction angle 20hkl and the diffraction intensity was recorded as a function of the angle of rotation of the specimen around the axis, lying in the specimen surface and perpendicular to the wire axis, as shown in Fig. 1. Measurements were also done with the detector at angles slightly deviating from the diffraction maxima The measured intensities in this case were taken to be equal to the background level. The deviations were chosen as small as possible but large enough to eliminate the influence of the diffraction maxima. The useful range of the rotation angle x of the specimen is generally limited by the wavelength of the X-rays. We have: where and cp is the angle between the wire axis and the normal of the diffraction plane. Intensity measurements were made to find the necessary corrections for counting loss of the GM counter and for distortion resulting from such effects as absorption of X-rays and from inclination of the reflection plane under study with respect to the surface of the specimen. The counting loss was esti-
Jan 1, 1968
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Underground Mining - Enhancement Effects from Simultaneously Fired Explosive ChargeBy R. L. Ash, R. R. Rollins, C. J. Konya
An investigation was performed to determine conditions for optimizing the spacing of simultaneously initiated multiple explosive columns. This was done by using models of mortar, dolomite, and Plexiglas with 10-grain mild detonating fuse as the explosive charge. It was desired to simulate blastholes with multiple primers initiated by detonating fuse or when high-velocity explosives are used in low-velocity materials. It was found that optimum spacing between multiple charges was strongly influenced by charge length. At less than optimum charge length, the spacing at which complete shearing was possible between adjacent charges decreased exponentially with a subsequent loss of broken material volume. For charges fired simultaneously, larger burdens and spacings were possible as compared to those necessary for single-crater charges. For each material studied, there was a characteristic optimum charge length and a maximum attainable spacing at any given burden. Proper selection of the spacing distance between charges is fundamental to successful blasting. Its value directly affects the cost of drilling and explosives used per unit of broken material. In addition, the choice of a spacing that is Compatible with a given set of blasting conditions aids in the control of fragmentation sizing, ground vibrations, overbreak, and throw which in turn, influence other production costs. For example, normally loaded blastholes that are spaced too closely invariably promote overbreak and usually give coarse fragmentation. Unless care is taken, airblast and violent flyrock will occur and under certain conditions cutoffs and misfires may result. Too large a spacing, on the other hand, frequently leads to conditions that form bootlegs or toes. The choice of a particular spacicg to use, however, is largely a matter of individual experience and judgment, usually based on trial and error. Very little is known or can be found in the literature with regard to how the spacing between charges is related to field conditions and charge geometry. As a general rule, the firing time sequence of adjacent charges and properties of a material are thought to have the most significant influence on the spacing distance best suited for any given field condition. For example, delayed initiation of adjacent charges usually always requires a closer spacing than when charges are fired at the same time. This should be expected if one considers that the energy normally dissipated and lost in the surrounding ground from charges fired independently would be captured and utilized for breaking material between charges when they are initiated together. Spacing can be extended also when charges are aligned with structural planes of a material, such as jointing, along which shearing is relatively easy. It is customary to relate the spacing (S) between charges to their common burden (B) in the form of a spacing ratio, or SIB. The burden normally is considered as the optimum depth or distance from any single charge perpendicular to the nearest free or open face at which the desired fragmentation and maximum crater yield are obtained. For production blasting, value of the ratio is generally considered to vary from 1 to 2, depending on conditions.1-6 When adjacent charges are fired independent of one another, the value varies from 1 to about 1.4, the closer amount being employed to square corners or produce craters having the ideal 90" apex angle. The larger ratio is the geometric balance value for craters having an apex angle of 135". The basic ideal crater forms in the plane of the charge diameter for charges fired independently are shown in Fig. 1. In the event charges are fired simultaneously, geometric balance in the plane of their charge diameters suggests that a spacing ratio near 2 would be appropriate, as illustrated by Fig. 2. In practice, however, some compromise ratio value must be selected to conform with the specific ground conditions. An example would be where the jointing planes tend to produce 60° or 120° crater angles, the appropriate geometrically balanced charge arrangement being given by Fig. 3. In this condition, the spacing ratio is 1.15, not 1 or 1.4 as suggested for the 90° cratering of independently fired adjacent charges. In view of the foregoing, it would seem logical to assume that whenever charges all having the same burden are fired at the same time, spacing distances always can be greater than those permitted by charges fired independently. In practice this is not the case, however.
Jan 1, 1970
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Institute of Metals Division - Effects of Metallurgical Variables on Charpy and Drop-Weight TestsBy W. R. Hansen, F. W. Boulger
Twenty-nine laboratory steels were studied to determine the effects of composition and ferrite grain size on drop-weight and Charpy V-notch transition temperatures. The experimental steels covered the following ranges in composition.. 0.10 to 0.32 pct C, 0.30 to 1.31 pct Mn, 0.02 to 0.43 pct Si, md nil to 0.136 pct acid-soluble Al. Although most of the data were obtained on hot-rolled samples, some plates were heat-treated in order to cover a wider range in ferrite grain size. The experimental data were used for a multiple-correlation analysis conducted with the aid of an electronic computer. The study showed that carbon raises and that manganese, silicon, aluminum, and finer ferrite grains lower both drop-weight and Charpy transition temperatures. Quantitatively, variations in composition and grain size have a more marked effect on V15 Charpy transition temperatures than on the drop-weight transition temperature. Useful correlations were found between transition temperatures in drop-weight tests and those defined by seven different criteria for Charpy tests. Evidence was accumulated that the conditions ordinarily used for drop-weight tests are more severe for 1-1/4-in. -thick plate than for 5/8- to 1-in. -thickplate. PROJECT SR-151, to study quantitatively the effects of metallurgical variables on performance in the drop-weight test, was established by the Ship Structure Committee late in 1958 on recommendation of the National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council. This project was initiated as a result of the increasing use of the drop-weight (nil-ductility) test in predicting the ductile-to-brittle behavior of steel. Qualitative data indicated the drop-weight was not as sensitive to metallurgical variables as the Charpy V-notch test. Furthermore, the available information indicated that the drop-weight test did not show the superiority of killed steels over semikilled steels reflected by Charpy tests. This difference in sensitivity to brittle fracture is considered important because the drop-weight transition temperature has been reported1 to correlate better with service-temperature failures than the V-notch test does at a constant energy level. Therefore, this project was concerned with establishing quantitatively the effects of metallurgical variables in the drop-weight test. For comparison, Charpy V-notch data were obtained for the steels investigated. This paper summarizes the results of the investigation. Most of the steels used for the study were made and processed in the laboratory. However, some tests were also made on commercial killed steels available from Project SR-139 (SSC-141). During the course of the investigation, data were obtained on the effects of carbon, silicon, manganese, and aluminum on transition temperatures of drop-weight and Charpy specimens. In addition, the effects of heat treatment which changed the ferrite grain size and the transition temperatures were also investigated. Finally a few exploratory studies were made on commercial killed steels to evaluate the effects of plate thickness, grain size, and heat treatment on the performance of drop-weight specimens. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES Preparation of Materials. A total of twenty-nine 500-lb induction-furnace heats were made and processed in the laboratory for the investigation. Carbon, manganese, silicon, and aluminum contents were systematically varied. Melting and rolling techniques proven satisfactory in a previous project2 were used as a guide for the current investigation. Composition. The composition of the twenty-nine laboratory heats made for this project are given in Table I. The steels are divided into three groups. The first group consists of ten aluminum-killed steels similar in composition to Class C ship-plate steel. The second group consists of ten semikilled or Class B type steels. In both of these groups the carbon and manganese contents were intentionally varied over a wide range. This wide range in composition was helpful in obtaining quantitative data from a limited number of steels. The primary purposes of these two groups of steels was to determine the effects of carbon, manganese, and deoxidation practice. In addition, one steel in each group (Steels 2-2 and 9-2) were made about 1 year after the start of the program in order to check consistency of melting practice. The third group of nine steels listed in Table I was intended for studies on the effects of silicon and aluminum. In eight of these steels carbon and manganese were held relatively constant at levels of about 0.2 and 0.8 pct, respectively, while silicon and
Jan 1, 1963
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Geophysics Education - Later discussion on Professional Trainingand would also contribute to the post-war employment. -As far as the future is concerned, I doubt whether any of the present geophysical methods will ever be developed to directly indicate ore. However, the geochemical methods and certain combinations between chemical and geological methods now used might be the answer to our prayers for direct and more definite methods of determining the quality of the ore or its relative metal content. Geochemical and spectrochemical analysis of minute content in ground waters, in soil or in plants and trees, living or dead, will be extremely important and I would venture to predict that in the very near future each mining or exploration company and each assay oflice will have its own spectroscope equipped for accurate chemical analysis, not only to guide the daily work in the mine, but also for identifying ores as well as for guiding exploration, geological mapping and the evaluation of geophysical indications. These methods, although they are still in their infancy, promise very much for the future. Radioactivity methods could also be helpful when sufficient facilities for radioactivity determination can be made available. They have already been used to a great extent in oil exploration and experiments have shomn great promise for ore exploration also. As for future surveys of large areas, the exploration for physical contrasts will be made from the air, using aeroplanes, helicopters, etc. Already electrical and magnetic methods have been designed whereby the instruments are carried in the aircraft and by automatic recording the location of anomalies is made in a simple enough manner. It should be possible in this way to cover, say, a square mile in an hour. Later Discussion Replies to Dr Lundberg. J. B. Macelwane.*—Someone has said that if a person knows his subject well enough he can explain it in words of one syllable. The point is well taken and I think the converse is also true. If a person cannot explain a subject clearly in simple words, it is either because he has not sufficient command of the language, or he is not master of his subject. Now it is obvious, it seems to me, that the remedy for both of these unfortunate conditions lies not in less education, but in more. If Dr. Lundberg has met geophysicists who confused and discouraged prospective clients by their inability to talk the language of the mine owner or of the mining engineer or geologist, the fault most probably lay in the geophysicist's lack of sufficient training; but it may also have been the want of ordinary common sense, which no amount of education can supply. It is hard to understand the position taken by Dr. Lundberg. Does he regret his own extensive training? noes he wish to say that he would have had greater success in geophysics if he had been only a mine hand with an instrument and a rule of thumb? As a matter of fact, I find it rather difficult to account for his presentation before this Committee on Geophysics of an emotionally distorted picture of the Report of the Committee on Geophysical Education, after the lapse of an entire year since the Report was read and discussed in its proper place, unless he honestly thinks he is handicapped by his knowledge and training and wishes to warn the whole profession against a similar fate. I regret that I am obliged to disagree so emphatically with Dr. Lundberg's thesis— but I believe it would be dangerous if left unchallenged, both because of the inaccurate statements it contains concerning the recommendations made in the Report and because of the ultimate discredit that would be bound to fall upon genuine geophysics if Dr. Lundberg's recommendations were extensively followed out. S. F. Kelly.*-—The argument that a science and its practitioners can be improved by debasing the standard of educational preparation is indeed a strange argument to come from the pen of a man with the education of Dr. Hans Lundberg. In criticising the Committee report, moreover, he has to a certain extent set up a straw man to belabor. The statement that the Committee report recommends that
Jan 1, 1946
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Part VI – June 1968 - Papers - The Effect of Slag Thickness on Heat Loss from Ladles Holding Molten SteelBy J. Szekely, Robert G. Lee
Calculations are presented for the prediction of the combined radiative-convective heat loss from molten steel held in a ladle, covered by initially molten slag. A mathematical formulation is given and numerical solutions are presented of the resultant partial differential equation. It is shown that a slag layer of about 2 to 3 in. thick would prevent any significant heat loss from the top metal surface for Periods of up to 1 hr. For thinner slag layers (or in the absence of the protective slag) appreciable heat losses would occur; plots given in the paper allow the quantitative evaluation of the fall in the metal temperature due to this heat loss. The ironmaking-steel processing operation involves several intermediate steps where the molten metal is held or transfered in ladles. The quantitative assessment of the heat losses occurring under these conditions is of considerable importance in process design considerations since the temperature of the metal may have to meet rigid specifications in any given part of the processing sequence. While the metal is held in a ladle, heat is lost by two mechanisms: i) by conduction into the ladle walls; ii) by radiation and convection from the top surface. Calculations relating to the conductive heat loss, are readily made and information may be found in the literature both on data pertaining to metallurgical situations and on the techniques that are available for performing additional computations.'-3 The evaluation of the combined convective-radiative heat loss is less straightforward, especially when there exists a protective slag layer covering the metal. In this latter case, as the top slag surface loses heat partial solidification may occur and the latent heat thus given up by the slag may represent an effective barrier to the heat loss from the metal. A semiquantitative assessment of the role played by the slag in preventing heat loss from the metal has been made in a previous paper,4 where it was shown that a slag layer 6 in. thick would act as a near-perfect insulator for periods of up to 2 hr. However, this first paper reported on an essentially preliminary investigation that considered only one slag layer thickness; furthermore, the boundary conditions used for the calculations were somewhat restrictive since no allowance was made for changes in the metal temperature. The purpose of this second paper is to extend the scope of the preliminary investigation previously reported by: i) considering several slag layer thicknesses; ii) allowing for variations in the metal temperature; and finally iii) by performing calculations on the net loss from the metal rather than from the slag surface. FORMULATION Consider a slag phase extending from y = 0 to y = L1, covering a metal phase that occupies the region extending from y = Ll to y = L, as illustrated in Fig. 1. Denote the slag and metal temperatures by TS and Tm and assume that initially both slag and metal are molten, having a uniform temperature Ti. At time = zero the surface represented by the y = 0 plane (top slag surface) is brought into contact with cold air, the temperature of which is given as T Thus for time > zero, heat will be transfered from the slag to the air by natural convection and thermal radiation; as a result of this heat loss the slag temperature will fall and after some time a solid phase is formed and a solidification boundary (more realistically described as a zone) will move progressively from y = 0 toward y = L1. Once the region of temperature gradients, moving ahead of the solidification zone, reach the slag-metal interface (y = L1) there will be a net transfer of heat from the metal through the slag to the cold air, across the y = 0 plane. In the formulation of moving boundary problems, involving phase changes that require computer solution, it is convenient to represent both phases by a single equation, making allowance for the latent heat of solidification by assigning an appropriate temperature dependence to the specific heat content. Thus the energy equation for the whole of the slag may be written as follows:
Jan 1, 1969
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Part IX – September 1968 - Papers - On the Carbon-Carbon Interaction Energy in IronBy E. S. Machlin
The wzodel of Blandin and Diplunt;, generalized to include a phase factor, is applied to the carbon-carbon interaction in iron. Darken's "energetic" model is generalized to include not only first neighbor interactions but further neighbor interactions as well. On the bases of these generalized models relations are derived for the activity of carbon in both austenite and ferrite in terms of the carbon-carbon Pair interaction energies. A single function then yields the pair interaction energies consistent with the experimental activities of carbon in both ferrite and austenite. Thus, a simple explanation is given for the observation that the nearest-neighbor interaction between carbon is repulsive in austenite and attractive in ferrite. Certain consequences of this approach are explored. OnE object of the present paper is to attempt to take into account the consequences of electrostatic contributions to the carbon-carbon pair interaction energy for carbon as a solute in iron. Friedel' has shown that oscillations in electrostatic potential are to be expected about a solute atom in a metallic solution. Blandin and 6lant6' have shown that such oscillations yield an interaction energy between pairs of solute atoms that obeys the relation: W{ = A cos(2ftFri + 4>)/(kFri)3 [l] where kF = Fermi wave vector, ri = distance between solute atoms comprising the pair7 <p = phase factor dependent only on electronic nature of solute and solvent, A = coefficient dependent only on electronic nature of solute and solvent. Machlin3 found that Eq. [I] accurately described the pair interaction energy derived from short-range order measurements based on field ion microscope observations of dilute alloys of platinum. He also found that the value of the phase factor $ derived from residual resistivity measurements agreed well with that obtained from the analysis of the short-range order data. Harrison and paskin4 were able to predict the long-range ordering energy of 0 brass using Relation [I] and residual resistivity values to predict the value of the phase factor $. Machlin5 has repeated their analysis and applied it to the prediction of the long-range ordering energy in AgZn and AgCd with excellent agreement between prediction and experiment. Both A and $ are independent of the crystal structure. The Fermi wave vector depends uniquely upon the conduction electron concentration per unit volume in the spherical approximation of the Fermi surface. Thus, Eq. [I] is expected to apply to both fer- rite and austenite with only one set of values of A and $. Mossbauer studies6 yield the result that iron has one 4s electron. We shall make an assumption found to hold previously for platinum3'7 and nikel, which is that only the s electrons are involved in shielding the perturbing potential of carbon. With this assumption, kF = 1.35 A-l. Although A and $ may be obtained from certain mdels''' we shall take A and $ to be empirical constants in the spirit of Kohn and osko.' Thus, Eq. [I] involves two adjustible parameters. Consequently, two independent relations in A and $I are required in order to evaluate them for carbon as a solute in iron. We may use a recent analysis of Aaronson, Domain, and poundg who showed that Darken's energetic model,1° as well as others, can be used to describe the activity-temperature data for carbon in iron in both the aus-tenitic and ferritic phases. Darken's model takes into account only first neighbor pair interactions. For our needs, all neighbor pairs need to be taken into account. It is convenient to generalize Darken's model. The result for the partition function for austenite is: over the temperature range 800" to 1200°C and where the uncertainty corresponds to one standard deviation. Eq. [4] effectively yields only one relation. Another relation is required to obtain unique values for A and $. One property of Eq. [4] is that it is independent of crystal structure. Hence, data for a iron can be used to obtain another relation. To arrive at this relation we must generalize Eqs. [2] and [3] so that they may be applied to the bcc a iron. The result is that:
Jan 1, 1969
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Institute of Metals Division - Determination of Interstitial Solid-Solubility Limit in Tantalum and Identification of the Precipitate Phases (Discussion)By Dale A. Vaughan, Oliver M. Stewart, Charles M. Schwartz
A. U. Seybolt (General Electric Research Laboratory)—The authors should be commended for adding some important information to our knowledge of the solubility of interstitial elements in metals. It is becoming increasingly evident that the effect of even traces of such elements have very far-reaching effects upon the mechanical properties of the body centered cubic metals. Those who have worked in this area know that the accurate determination of the small solid solubility limits in systems of the type reported by the authors is a quite difficult task, and it is therefore not surprising that frequently the results of different workers are not in agreement. It is instructive, and usually helpful, to plot the solubility results on log weight or atomic percent -1/T coordinates to find out if a straight line is obtained. A straight line is expected because in systems displaying solubilities of the order of 1 to 3 at. pet or less, Henry's law is usually obeyed—or at least well enough obeyed so that the deviation from linearity is not very appreciable. If Henry's law is obeyed, one canthen use the Van't Hoff Equation in the form In N = ?H/RT + C, where N is mole fraction, at. pet, or wt pet for small values, and AH is the partial molal heat of solution of the solute. R and T have the usual significance, and C is an integration constant. If one plots the reported nitrogen solubility values as indicated above, the three points fall reasonably well on a straight line. The oxygen values for the two upper temperatures fall very closely to the nitrogen values as shown in the authors' Fig. 15. However, the value at 500°C departs widely from the straight line established by the data at 1500" and 1000°C. It is, of course, true that one cannot place too much emphasis on the significance of a line established by only three points, but in the absence of reasons for anticipating deviations, data exhibiting wide departures from linearity should at least be examined closely. Fig. 16 shows the log at. pct -1/T plots for the authors Ta-O and Ta-Ndata including a solid circle point at 500°C and 1.8 at. pet for Ta-O, which is simply extrapolated from the two higher temperature points. In addition, the data of R. P. Elliott9 for Nb-O are shown. These points were picked off his curve and are not very exact, but as can be seen they line up well on a straight line. It is interesting, and probably significant, that the slope of Elliott's results is not far from those of Vaughn, et al. This is probably to be expected because one would anticipate that the partial molal heats of solution of oxyten in these two very similar metals should be not too far apart. AH for Ta-O is about -1900 cal per mol, while for Nb-O it is near -2300 cal per mol. Hence, this lends some support to the thesis that the point at 500°C for Ta-O is much too high. The data of Gebhardt and Preisedanz10 are also plotted, and it is seen that their data while lying on a linear plot, have an appreciably steeper slope. The possible reasons for this will not be discussed here except to point out that their pressure-composition data show anomalies which suggest that they may have been dealing with a different equilibrium from that being discussed. There is another consideration which would also suggest that the solubility at 500°C is lower than shown. The solubility values were obtained by the classic method of first establishing a lattice parameter-composition curve. This the authors did, and there is probably little doubt that it is quite accurate. Such a plot is generally almost error-free because it has a self-correcting feature in that any deviation from linearity makes a data point immediately suspect, and subject to confirmation. Unfortunately, this is not true with respect to the actual solubility values. These are obtained ordinarily by taking an alloy containing more solute than is soluble at some temperature and then thermally
Jan 1, 1962
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Geophysics - Effect of a Variable Surface Layer on Apparent Resistivity DataBy Harold M. Mooney
WHEN apparent resistivity data are taken with the symmetrical Wenner 4-electrode spread, a fixed center position is used and readings are taken for values of electrode separation. Basic data consist of apparent resistivity plotted against separation of adjacent electrodes . The interpreter attempts to infer geologic structure, such as the depth to discontinuities and the nature of subsurface earth materials. An earlier paper' described methods for interpreting resistivity data. All of these involve a severe assumption, namely that the earth in the region of interest consists of horizontal layers, electrically homogeneous and isotropic. The actual earth never satisfies this assumption exactly and may deviate from it so much that none of the above methods can be applied. Attempts in three directions have been made to modify the assumption so that it approaches known geologic complexity more closely. First, curves have been calculated for dipping discontinuities. Stern' and Aldredge hose a few widely separated dip angles. Trudu confined his attention to small dips. Berel'kovskiy and Zubanov computed gradient curves for widely separated dip angles. Unz as given the most complete solution, with a brief attempt to treat the three-layer case. Second, anisotropy can be taken into account. It seems geologically probable that layered materials have different vertical and horizontal conductivities. Cagniard, Maillet, and Pirson et up methods for finding an equivalent hypothetical isotropic medium. Standard interpretation methods can be applied to this, and the actual medium can then be deduced. Belluigi'" discounts the practical importance of anisotropy; Geneslay and Rouget do not agree with his conclusion. Third, the effect of variable resistivity in a layer can be considered. Keck and Colby" examine the mathematics of an exponential increase in a surface layer. Several authors, for example, Stevenson,'' consider a continuous variation of resistivity with depth. The present paper deals with a linear variation of resistivity in a surface layer. Geologically, surface variations should be expected. Unconsolidated materials such as glacial drift show marked irregularities over short distances. The effects of weathering change with depth. The moisture content of material above the water table may vary from a dry sand to a saturated clay, and both of these will be changed by rainfall. Figs. 1 to 6 present apparent resistivity curves to show the effect of a variable surface layer. In all cases resistivity varies linearly with depth down to a depth of one unit. Material beneath this depth has constant resistivity. Electrode separation is plotted in depth units. Insets on each figure show the corresponding cross-sections, plotting true resistivity against depth. To illustrate, consider curve A of Fig. 1. The true resistivity of material at the surface of the earth is taken as 0.4 units. Resistivity increases with depth, reaching a value of 1.0 at 0.5 depth units and 1.6 at 1.0 depth units. Below a depth of 1.0, all the material has very low resistivity (zero, for purposes of calculation). Curve A in the main part of Fig. 1 shows how apparent resistivity varies for this case as the electrode spacing is increased. To illustrate further, curve E of Fig. 4 corresponds to true resistivity of 1.2 units at the surface, 1.0 at a depth of 0.5 units, 0.8 at a depth of 1.0, and 1.5 for all depths greater than 1.0. Apparent resistivity curves have been plotted logarithmically so that the shape of the curves becomes independent of the units, giving the curves wide validity. A certain drift-covered area, for example, shows a gradual decrease of resistivity from 230 ohm-meters at the surface to 150 ohm-meters at the bedrock surface, 275 ft down; bedrock resistivity is 800 ohm-meters. Curve E of Fig. 5 indicates that true resistivity decreases from 1.2 units at the surface to 0.8 at a depth of 1.0, then increases abruptly to a constant value of 4.0 units. Since resistivity and depth ratios are the same, this can be used to predict the field curve. For Fig. 5, multiply true resistivity and apparent resistivity by
Jan 1, 1955