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By John F. Sulzbach, Donald K. Walker, John F. Abel

With the increasing military significance of the arctic, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' ice- tunneling research program has been instituted to determine the feasibility of excavating large under- ice openings. Such openings would provide for year- around storage of material and housing of personnel, independent of surface weather conditions. This unique ice mining operation has been carried on in the tunnels at Camp Tuto, Greenland, during the summers of 1955, 1956, 1957 and 1958 by the U.S. Army Snow, Ice, and Permafrost Research Establishment (USA SIPRE), Wilmette, Ill. Supervisory personnel for the tunneling projects principally have been civilian mining engineers and mining engineering students from Colorado School of Mines. They have been employed under contract between USA SIPRE and the Denver Research Institute (DRI) of the University of Denver, Denver, Colo. Laborers have been enlisted military personnel attached to the U.S. Army Polar Research & Development Center (USA PR&DC) , Ft. Belvoir, Va.

Jan 6, 1959

By A. H. Daane, W. J. Wunderlin, B. J. Beaudry

The solid solubility of holmium in copper, silver, and gold, determined using metallographic techniques, was found to be a maximum of 0.06, 2.4, and 3.2 wt pct, respectively, nt the eutectic temperatures. The temperatures of these eutectic horizontals, determined by differential thermal analysis, were found to be 868", 787", and 778"C, respectively. The first compound on the silver-rich side of the Ag-Ho system was found to be A&Ho2. In a study by Gold et al.,' on the effect of small amounts of soluble impurities on the electrical resistance and thermoelectrical properties of copper, traces of iron were shown to have drastic effects on the thermoelectric power due to the magnetic scattering of the conduction electrons. Since little is known about the state of the iron ion when dissolved in copper, Gold had hoped to repeat these experiments using certain rare earths as the magnetic scattering centers; because of the tightly bound 4f electrons it is not expected that their spectroscopic state would be affected by alloying. In such an experiment the sole role of the trace rare-earth impurity would be to magnetically scatter the copper conduction electrons without producing appreciable distortions in the otherwise pure copper matrix. Since holmium was chosen for such a study because of its high magnetic moment, it was necessary to establish precisely its solid solubility in copper. The study was extended to include the solvents silver and gold, so that an evaluation of the data using classical solubility parameters could be made. No previously reported work on the systems of holmium with copper, silver, or gold was found in the literature. Information on the solubility of other rare earths in these three metals is also very meager. The solubility limit of yttrium in copper was reported as less than 1 wt pct2 and the solubility of praseodymium in gold as 0.35 wt pct,3 while no references were found on solubility studies of rare earths in silver. EXPERIMENTAL Materials. The materials used in this investigation were distilled holmium prepared in this Laboratory, OFHC* copper, electrorefined silver (99.9 *OFHC = oxygen-free high conductivity. pct), and gold with the analyses given in Table I. Sample Preparation. Samples weighing 1 to 2 g were prepared by arc-melting the components together on a water-cooled copper plate under purified argon atmosphere. The samples, turned and remelted at least five times to ensure homogeneity, showed weight changes of less than 0.1 wt pct after melting. Samples containing less than 0.7 wt pct Ho were prepared by diluting 1 to 2 wt pct Ho alloys with the pure solvent, while samples with concentrations greater than 0.7 wt pct Ho were prepared directly from the metals. The samples were wrapped in tantalum foil, sealed in outgassed Vycor tubing under helium, annealed at the desired temperature for at least 24 hr, and then quenched by shattering the Vycor tube in cold water. Metallographic Methods. Standard mechanical polishing methods were used in preparing the silver and gold alloys for examination, while the copper alloys were electropolished using a 40 pct solution

Jan 1, 1963

By Clarence O. Babcock

A simple robust rock bolt load gage was tested in the laboratory to define its characteristic behavior and to obtain a measure of its performance. The gage uses three vibrating wire sensors crimped 120 (2.09 rad) apart into the outer surface of a hollow cylindrical steel, tube. The resonant frequencies of the wires change as the gage is loaded. This change is read with a Creare meter developed for the Bureau of Mines on a previous contract to read borehole stress gage results. A statistical analysis of data obtained defines the variables influencing results. A U.S. patent (3,914,992) assigned by the author to the Dept. of the Interior was granted Oct. 28, 1975.

Jan 1, 1978

By O. D. Gonzalez, H. A. Wriedt

Alloys ranging from pure iron to pure nickel were saturated with nitrogen gas at 918°, 999°, and 1217°C and analyzed. The solubility of nitrogen at 1-atm pressure was obtained as a function of nickel content for the whole range of iron-nickel alloys and the temperature dependence of solubility is shown for the experimental alloy compositions. The heat of solution and the entropy of solution of nitrogen in the alloys as func-tiom of composition up to 41 pct Ni are given. 1 HE acquisition of more exact thermodynamic information for systems composed of iron with various alloying elements continues to interest ferrous metallurgists. The interstitial alloying elements, especially carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen, comprise a field of particularly intense study. A recent investigation of carbon solubility in Fe-Ni alloys held at 1000°C in gases of fixed carbon activity showed an unpredicted minimum in the solubility near 72 pct Ni.1 The present investigation was undertaken to see if a similar anomaly in solubility existed for nitrogen in Fe-Ni alloys. The solubility of nitrogen in ? iron at known nitrogen activities has been measured several times.&apos;-&apos; Corresponding information for the solubility of nitrogen in solid Ni and Fe-Ni alloys is not available. Juza and sachsze9 reported that metallic nickel dissolved 0.07 pct N in equilibrium with Ni3N at 445°C. This result was regarded as dubious by Turkdogan and Ignatowicz10 who found less than 0.0004 pct N in nickel specimens equilibrated at 600°C with ammonia-hydrogen mixtures having fugacities of N2 gas up to 35,000 atm. Such fragmentary reports indicate only that nitrogen gas has a very much lower solubility in nickel than in iron. MATERIALS A purified iron from Battelle Memorial Institute was used for solubility measurements. This grade contained more than 99.95 pct Fe, the highest content of any measured individual impurity being 50 ppm for each of As, C, Cu, and Pb. The nickel and iron-nickel alloys, supplied by the International Nickel Co., contained 0.02 to 0.04 pct C, 0.17 to 0.19 pct Mn, 0.04 to 0.08 pct Si, < 0.01 pct P, <0.03 pct S, and <0.20 pct Co as principal impurities. The Fe-0.59 pct Mn alloy was of zone-melted quality, the highest concentration of any individual impurity being 15 ppm Al. The "prepurified" grade of nitrogen gas from Matheson Co. had a nominal nitrogen content of 99.996 pct. An "electrolytic" grade of hydrogen gas from National Cylinder Gas. CO. in which the principal impurity is water vapor was admixed with the nitrogen to prevent oxidation of these specimens. This grade was preferred to a purer grade because the presence of some oxygen helps in suppressing contamination of the specimens, for instance, by silicon from the porcelain furnace tube. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE The specimens were equilibrated in vertical tube furnaces through which a 99 pct N2-1 pct H2 gas was passed at ambient pressure. For the 915", 918", and 999°C runs, a wound-resistance furnace was used, and for the 1217°C runs, a furnace with a tubular silicon carbide element was used. The temperature control system on both furnaces was similar: a Weston "Celectray" controller with a modulator, responding to the electromotive force of a thermocouple with its hot junction in the furnace, switched the furnace current between high and low settings. The temperature distributions in the working zones of the furnaces were determined with calibrated Pt/Pt-10 pct Rh thermocouples. The overall uncertainty in temperature was estimated to be ±3° at 915° to 999°C and ±5° at 1217°C . Consideration of the small temperature coefficients of the equilibria studied, together with the error limits in the method of analyzing for nitrogen, showed that further refinement in temperature uniformity would give no improvement in resultant accuracy. The reactive gas was generated by mixing together "prepurified" nitrogen and "electrolytic" hydrogen directly from cylinders commercially supplied. The flow rates of nitrogen and of hydrogen were fixed by setting with bleeders the pressure drops across the individual calibrated flow meters of constant resistance. For any given alloy, the solubility of nitrogen at 1-atm pressure (% N) was obtained from the analyzed nitrogen content of equilibrated specimens (% Na)according to Sieverts&apos; law, thus

Jan 1, 1962

By D. B. Hunter, H. W. Rosenberg

The titanium-rich portion of the Ti-Pd system was investigated from 0 to 75 wt pct Pd by metallo-graphic and X-ray techniques. A 0 eutectoid occurs at 24 wt pct Pd and 1190°F. Two compoutzds are indicated in the region below 75 wt pct Pd, Ti,Pd and Ti2Pd3. The solubility of palladium its a titanium is low, probably less than 1 pct. In 1960 Rudnitskii and Birunl published a complete version of the Ti-Pd phase diagram. However, their work was in disagreement with the earlier literature in that they reported only one inter metallic compound, whereas three had been reported earlier. In view of these discrepancies, it was therefore necessary to redetermine those portions of the diagram of immediate interest. The following account describes our work on the system over the range of 0 to 75 wt pct Pd. MATERIALS AND METHODS Distilled titanium sponge and elemental palladium were used in the formulation of the alloys; the chemistry of these materials is detailed in Table I. The alloys were prepared as 10 to 50 g blended compacts that were melted into buttons by arc melting under gettered argon on a water-cooled copper hearth. Weighing of the ingredients before and after melting showed that negligible weight changes occurred. Therefore, no analyses were undertaken and the compositions of all alloys are nominal. All alloys were fabricated by hot rolling at 1700°F to 0.070-in.-thick sheet. Scale was removed by sandblasting and pickling in a 5 pct HF-35 pct HNO,, balance H20 solution. For metallographic examination, specimens were mounted after heat treatment transverse to the rolling direction, ground on silicon carbide papers of increasing fineness to 600 grit, and then electro-polished using a solution containing 600 ml me-thanol, 60 ml perchloric acid, 360 ml butyl cello-solve, and 2 ml "Solvent X". Unless otherwise specified, etching of alloys containing up to 42 pct Pd was carried out by swabbing with a 12 pct HN03-1 pct HF aqueous etch where a bright etch was required, or by a 1 pct hydrofluoric in saturated oxalic acid solution where contrast between phases was required. The Ti-52.8 Pd alloy was etched with a solution of 25 ml HF, 40 ml glycerine, 35 ml methanol, and 18 g benzalkonium chloride. For X-ray examination, 1/2-in.-square speci- mens of sheet were mounted flat in a standard 1-in. metallographic mount and ground and polished as above. X-ray diffraction was performed using a Norelco type 12045 Diffractometer, employing CuKa radiation with a nickel filter at 40 kv and 20 ma. Specimens were rotated about the sheet normal during exposure. Although this procedure did not remove the effects of sheet texture from the relative intensities, it had the advantage that oxidation or contaminants entering during preparation of powder samples could not confuse the patterns obtained. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Fig. 1 illustrates the Ti-Pd phase diagram according to Rudnitskii and Birunl with the work of the present authors superimposed. Both interpretations agree that the system is of the 0 -eutectoid type with an extensive 0-phase field, and that the eutectoid temperature is just below 1200°F. There is also agreement that the solubility of palladium in a titanium is restricted. Our work would indicate that the a solubility of palladium is low, probably less than 1 pct. However, whereas Rudnitskii and Birunl place the eutectoid composition at 41 wt pct Pd, this investigation shows it to be at about 24 wt pct Pd. Moreover, this investigation confirms the existence of compounds at Ti2Pd and Ti2Pd3, whereas Rudnitskii and Birun report only a single Berthol-lide phase covering the TiPd to TiPd, range. Laves et a1.&apos; and Wallbaum, whose work was summarized by Maykuth , reported the existence of Ti2Pd3 and TiPd, in addition to Ti2Pd. More recently, Nevitt and Downe~&apos; have reported the structure of

Jan 1, 1965

By C. A. Doh, R. Q. Fields, M. Lebourg

A formation tester run on logging cable is now available to the oil industry. It offers a method of safely and rapidly testing possible producing formations in uncased holes. These tests can be made up the hole after running the electric log. Reservoir pressure data is continuously recorded at the surface as the fluid sample is extracted. The tester may be assembled with a reservoir of 1-, 2.75-, or 5.5-gal capacity. A retaining pad on the body of the tool is expanded against the wall of the hole at the exact depth desired; this depth is determined by electrical log control. Two bullets are then fired through the center of the retaining pad which create a connection between the formation and a flow line to the sample chamber. When the chamber is filled, a valve is closed and the fluid sample sealed at maximum pressure. The tool is retracted to minimum diameter and brought out of the hole. Electrical circuits permit a complete recording at the surface of the mechanical operations of the tool as well as the formation pressure build-up and the hydrostatic mud pressure. The tool was introduced commercially during the latter part of 1955 in the Gulf Coasts of Louisiana and Texas. Over 1,000 operations have been made to date (Sept. 1, 1956); 50 per cent of which resulted in successful tests. Failures have been due mostly to ineffective sealing in unconsolidated sands. One major company had 41 successful tests out of 80 attempts with 23 ineffective pad seals. Results for this company were very gratifying as to pinpointing gas-oil ratios, indicating productive permeabilities and aiding in determination of fluid content where electrical log and side-wall coring information were inconclusive. Eight typical pressure curves are discussed (including misruns). Six types of fluid recoveries are interpreted. Eight actual field examples of electric logs, showing the problems solved by the formation tester, are illustrated. The present applications of the tool are discussed: 1. Determination of productive fluid—varticularlv differentiating between gas and oil. 2. Determination of reservoir pressure as an aid to: (a) safety in completion technique, (b) reduction in drilling costs, and (c) reservoir analysis. 3. Determination of minimum gas-oil ratios. 4. Location of gas-oil or oil-water contacts. 5. Recovery of samples for examination and analysis: oil (gravity); gas (hydrocarbon content); water (salinity). Additional applications envisioned for the future are also given: (I) subsurface exploration based on accurate pressure, (2) recovery of fluid samples from the undisturbed reservoir for PVT work, and (3) possible quantitative study of permeabilities or productivity index. Running the formation tester requires no special pre-cautionary measures. Because full hydrostatic mud pressure is maintained at all times, well depth is no problem. Thus, the method allows safe, economical testing in wells which heretofore could only be tested by setting casing. INTRODUCTION A new method of safely and rapidly testing possible producing formations in uncased holes is achieving considerable success. The method offers promise of further advances in reservoir study. Called the formation tester, the new instrument is unique in that it operates on logging cable. It thus offers all the advantages of wire-line operations and becomes an important adjunct to present logging and side-wall coring services. The tester is operated against the wall of the hole at any depth desired. Zones to be tested are usually determined by a study of the electrical and the micro-caliper surveys. Reservoir data, as well as the operating cycle of the tool in the hole, are continuously recorded at the surface during the operation. The tester, as it was originally designed, was capable of recovering a 1-gal sample of reservoir fluid per trip in the hole. Tools with reservoirs of 2.75- and 5.5-gal capacity are now available. The 5.5-gal reservoir is equipped with a segregating system, set before going in the hole, so that the last portion of the recovery (usually 1 gal) is automatically separated from the first portion. This makes it possible

Jan 1, 1958

By John V. Beall

BROMO Seltzer blue has gone to war. The blue of the Bromo Seltzer bottle is a product of cobalt, the Nation&apos;s No. 1 strategic metal. When the National Production Authority, on Nov. 21, 1950, ordered a 70 pct cutback in domestic use of cobalt, a stab of pain was felt in the hearts of the glass, porcelain enamel, steel, paint, pottery, and electrical and electronic equipment industries. The reason: A full-scale wartime economy with astronomical requirements for jet engines, high velocity projectiles, armor plate, electronic equipment, and the many products needed to win a war. There is little potential comfort for cobalt users in nonessential manufacturing, and the military will be pinched for optimum supplies of the metal. However, if proper measures are taken immediately and current plans are completed, in two years there will be far more cobalt available than ever before. When normal times return, cobalt supplies should be sufficient to meet peacetime military requirements, and greatly expanded domestic requirements that will result from new technological development for wartime but adaptable to peacetime products. The pres-

Jan 1, 1951

By A. P. Coldren, V. Biss

SINCE the r ? a transformation rates of many carbon-free ferrous alloys and low-carbon alloy steels are relatively fast, conventional equipment is not suitable for the dilatometric determination of continuous cooling transformation diagrams. On the other hand, a method based on metallographic analysis of quenched specimens would not be practicable because the various products of shear-dominated transformation are essentially indistinguishable in low-carbon iron-base alloys. Both problems may be avoided by a thermal analysis method employing gas quenching of small specimens austenitized in vacuo. The laboratory equipment employed in the present study consisted of a Tektronix Type 564 Storage Screen Oscilloscope and a Kinney high-vacuum evaporator, modified as shown in Fig. 1, to permit heating a small specimen and cooling it slowly by programmed cooling or rapidly (up to about 8000°F per sec) by a controlled quench with helium gas. The oscilloscope records the electromotive force of a 40-gage (0.003-in.-diam) Chromel-Alumel thermocouple in the specimen during cooling. The temperature at which the cooling curve begins to show the influence of the heat produced by the phase change in the specimen was arbitrarily taken as the transformation-start temperature.*

Jan 1, 1970

By Newell G. Alford

With the workable area of coal prospected and known as to workability and quantity and sampled and tested for desired quality comes the determination of the projection and method of working. The best method will be the one supplying the greatest degree of safety, the most merchantable product, the minimum average cost per ton with the largest yield of recoverable coal. Based on coal elevations, taken at the bottom of the seam on all known outcrop exposures, prospect openings or drill holes, coal contours are made on the map to be used in developing the mining plan. The contour interval should be as close as available information will permit. For general utility in layout of mining, haulage, drainage and ventilation, a map scale of 400 ft. per in. is preferable. In mountainous sections, location of the main out- crop opening or hoisting shaft is often limited by the available railroad route and amount of land level enough for a plant site. In level country, where a tipple and hoisting shaft may be placed at will, choice of the plant site should depend on the minimum average underground haul for the total coal to be worked to the new

Jan 1, 1932

By I. Fatt

This paper proposes the network of tubes as a model more closely representing real porous media than does the bundle of tubes. Capillary pressure curves are derived from network models and pore size distributions are calculated from these curves. In this way is shown the difference between the true and calculated pore size distributions when the capillary pressure curve is used to obtain pore size distribution for porous media. INTRODUCTION Despite the technological importance of the laws governing flow through porous media, many of these laws have not yet been clearly formulated. This is especially true of the laws governing multiphase flow. The static properties, such as the capillary pressure curve, are also not at present interpretable correctly in terms of the pore size distribution and other structural properties of porous media. In the absence of any well founded theoretical description of fluid flow through porous media, many empirical descriptions have been proposed. In addition to the strictly empirical flow equa- tions, some equations have been developed rigorously from simple geometrical models of the pore spaces. These equations are only as valid as is the model used in their development. The two models used in the past, the sphere pack and the bundle of tubes, have been too simple, and as a result, the equations derived from them have failed to predict the observed properties. Agreement between theory and observation has been achieved for these models by inserting parameters of doubtful physical significance. The work to be reported here was undertaken in the belief that the study of a model more closely resembling most real porous media than does the sphere pack or bundle of tubes would yield useful information concerning the structure of real porous media and the relation between structure and flow properties. There was no intention of developing any calculational procedures, as for example calculating relative permeability from capillary pressure data. The objective of the study was instead to develop a better qualitative understanding of the relation between the various measurable properties of porous media. The model chosen for study is the network of tubes in which each tube represents a pore space in the porous medium. Microscopic observations leave no doubt that sandstones and clastic carbonates are three-dimensional irregular networks of irregularly shaped pores. The irregularity of these structures makes any accurate theoretical study of their properties impossible. Results from an oversimplified model such as the bundle of tubes are worthless when applied to real systerns. The sphere pack model, on the other hand, not

Jan 1, 1957

By P. E. Arnold, G. S. Ansell

RELAXATION in metals has been studied in detail by many workers in recent years.1-5 These studies have shown that there is an energy-loss peak observed in a metal placed in mechanical resonance at low frequencies which may be correlated with various metallurgical processes. These experiments have been largely used to study single-phase materials. In order to study the effect of a finely dispersed second phase in a metal matrix upon this phenomenon, the relaxation behavior of an aluminum-aluminum oxide SAP-Type alloy in both the fine-grained as-extruded and coarse-grained recrystallized conditions was investigated by the use of internal-friction measurements. The alloys studied, designated MD 2100, consist of a matrix of commercial-purity aluminum containing a finely dispersed second phase of aluminum oxide. The aluminum oxide is present in this alloy in the form of fine platelets approximately 130A units thick and several microns on edge. The mean free path betwen dispersed platelets is approximately 0.5 p. The grain size of this alloy is extremely stable at temperatures as high as the melting temperature of the aluminum matrix. In the as-extruded condition the grain diameter is several microns, while in the recrystallized condition it is several millimeters in diameter. The damping characteristics of the alloy samples were determined using a torsional-pendulum device. The internal-friction constant was determined for this alloy in both the fine-grained as-extruded and coarse-grained recrystallized conditions over the temperature range from 343" to 923°K at frequencies of 0.9, 1.3, and 1.8 cycles per sec. An internal-friction peak was observed in testing the fine-grained alloys which was not observed for the coarse-grained alloys. This peak, which might be associated with a type of grain-boundary relaxation, was observed at each of the three different test frequencies for the fine-grained sample. The temperature at which the relaxation peak occurred for each of the three different frequencies is shown in Table I. From these data an activation energy of relaxation for each pair of frequencies was determined by comparing the temperature shift of the relaxation peak with frequency between each of the test frequencies, assuming that an Arrhenius-type rate equation is applicable. The activation energy of relaxation determined from these data is also shown in Table I. The mean value of the activation energy was about 6 kcal per mole. The activation energy for the relaxation process determined in this investigation indicates that the relaxation associated with the grain boundaries in this aluminum-aluminum oxide SAP-Type alloy is quite a different process than grain boundary relaxation in single-phase aluminum alloys. In these latter alloys, the activation energy for relaxation has been found to be the activation energy for self-diffusion, approximately 36 kcal per mole1,2 Where the activation energy is the same as the activation energy for self diffusion, it has been proposed that the relaxation phenomena is dependent upon vacancy formation and motion. It is apparent therefore, that, in this aluminum-aluminum oxide SAP-Type alloy, the relaxation must be due to another type of atom transport. It has been shown previously in studies of the high-temperature, low-stress, steady-state creep behavior of as-extruded aluminum SAP-Type alloys, that the activation energy for steady-state creep is one that may be characterized by the nucleation of dislocations from the grain boundaries. It is proposed that the relaxation behavior observed here is due to a similar effect. In this case, the internal-friction peak is a resonance behavior due to the time-dependent nucleation of dislocations from grain boundaries in the sample. A process of this type would have an activation energy which is undoubtedly stress-dependent and of the form Q = Q, + (dQ/du)u

Jan 1, 1962

By Rudolph Emmel

The mines operated by the South American Development Co. are located in the Zaruma mining district of southwestern Ecuador. They are near the old mining town of Zaruma, which is the only important city in the canton of the same name. The district is situated in the upper end of a valley lying between two spurs of the Cordillera, one of which may be considered the Coast Range and the other an intermediate range. The mining camp proper, known as Portovelo, and the plant are 2.4 km. south of Zaruma, on the north bank of the Amarillo River, a tributary of the Tumbes River, which flows southwestward through Peru to the Pacific. Portovelo is difficult of access; it is reached from Guayaquil by means of river steamers and muleback. &apos;Embarking at Guayaquil, the route is down the Guayas River, across the Jambeli Canal, and up the Santa Rosa River to Santa Rosa, a distance of 177 km. From Santa Rosa, the road or trail follows the Santa Rosa River, then across the summit of the Coast Range into Portovelo, a distance of 74 km.—a two-day trip on muleback. The mining property of the South American Development Co. comprises 297 lode claims and 142 placer claims. The combined lode claims cover an area, roughly rectangular in shape, 9000 m. long from north to south by 4000 m. wide; the northern edge of the rectangle is about 3000 m. north of the central plaza of Zaruma. Mineral lands in Ecuador are held by virtue of an annual tax per claim paid to the central government, no surface rights being included. HiSTOry The Zaruma mine has been worked by white men since 1549, probably before that it was worked by Indians. The followers of Pizarro, led by traces of gold in the sands of the Tumbes River, followed that stream to its source, worked the gold veins that they found and established the city of Zaruma. Among the mines worked by them were th Sesmo, Leonora, Viscaya, and Mina Grande. Only the soft ores at the outcrop were

Jan 1, 1925

By E. C. Dominguez, H. B. Scharf

THE Sparrows Point plant of Bethlehem Steel Co., southeast of Baltimore, is the largest Bethlehem plant, with an annual rated capacity of 6.2 million ingot tons. There is considerable diversity of product, but a high percentage is sheet, tin plate, galvanized sheets, and rod and wire. The large amount of light-weight end product requires a number of pickling installations that necessarily consume large quantities of sulfuric acid. In the coking operations sulfuric acid is also consumed in recovery of ammonia as ammonium sulfate and in treatment of recovered light oil derivatives. Total sulfuric acid consumption in the plant is currently approaching 10,000 tons per month, of which 55 to 60 pct is required for pickling. In 1951 the acute sulfur shortage caused grave concern as to future sulfuric acid supply for the Sparrows Point plant. Raw materials for acid making were already at hand in the form of hydrogen sulfide and pyrites sufficient to produce nearly half the sulfuric acid required at that time. It was also known that the Bethlehem mining activities would produce additional pyrites in the future. Late in 1951 Bethlehem management decided to build a 250-ton sulfuric acid plant at Sparrows Point to utilize these raw materials. The plant was built and put in operation in May 1953. The steel plant has expanded considerably since 1951, and it is now necessary to operate the acid plant far over rated capacity in order to supply plant demand. Production of acid in 1954 amounted to 93,000 tons. Raw Materials for Acid Making: Coking operations at Sparrows Point produce a residual fuel gas in large quantity which has a net heating value of 525 to 545 Btu. Prior to 1950, plant surplus coke oven gas was sold to the local utility company. In

Jan 1, 1957

By J. W. Snavely

THE high tension belt conveyor is introducing a new and tremendously expanded era of low cost bulk material handling. High tension belt conveyors are generally those installations involving very long centers, high lifts, or drops, in which the belts are stressed up to their maximum tension values, and further, where the belt construction provides tension capacity far beyond what is possible with conventional belt constructions. With these high tension installations, the magnitude of the forces involved demands careful refinement of accepted design practice in order to achieve optimum balance of all factors.

Jan 3, 1951

By V. J. Berry, J. D. Pendergrass

Well pressure transient tests provide a means for directly obtaining information about formation pressure and reservoir flow capacity. Such tests have also been proposed for determining presence and location of faults or other reservoir closures and for measuring oil in place. For mathematical convenience, most theoretical studies have considered the reservoirs to be homogeneous. Definitive information is not yet available to show whether the actual presence of nonuniformities will make pressure transient behavior different from that of a uniform reservoir. The conclusions reached from actual transient tests are questionable, therefore, insofar as they rely on the original assumption of homogeneity. One type of nonuniformity commonly assumed to exist is that of stratification. In most reservoirs the strata are thought to be in vertical communication. Equations for the transient flow of a single-phase, compressible fluid in a one-well, bounded, circular reservoir have been solved for several situations involving crossflow between multiple strata of various thicknesses and permeabilities. The results show that except for the very early flow period, which usually is too short to be analyzed, the transient performance observed at the well is substantially identical with that of a homogeneous reservoir having the same dimensions and having the same steady-state flow capacity. Thus, stratification does not adversely affect interpretation of well transient tests. This conclusion holds for all commonly encountered combinations of reservoir thickness and external radius. Deviations are observed for unusually thick reservoirs whose outer radii are relatively small. The results of these studies also show that the presence and the amount of stratification cannot be simply diagnosed from reservoir pressure transient data when there is crossflow between strata. INTRODUCTION The last decade has brought wide acceptance of the transient well pressure test for determining reservoir parameters. Following the original work of Hurst and van Everdingen,1 the mathematical theory was thoroughly explored. Numerous authors have suggested how to determine static reservoir pressure, permeability-thickness product, original oil in place and reservoir limits for different reservoir geometry. The same mathematical techniques have been used to predict the transient performance of a reservoir over a long period of time. Most of the theoretical work has been for homogeneous, isotropic systems. Some results have also been presented for a homogeneous, anisotropic reservoir.2 Petroleum reservoirs are not homogeneous. The deposition process seems to favor creation of a stratified formation. This concept is sufficiently well accepted so that the most natural extension of the transient flow theory beyond the homogeneous case is to a stratified formation. Results for a stratified reservoir with no vertical communication between layers can be obtained from the results for a homogeneous reservoir. Lefkovitz, et a1,3 have given a thorough treatment of the two-layer case. Two recent papers4,5 have treated the case of a two-layered reservoir with vertical communication or crossflow, between layers. Russell and Prats4 find that, after a relatively short time, the two-layered reservoir with crossflow exhibits a simple exponential pressure decline. From this time forward, the behavior is not distinguishable from the behavior of a homogeneous reservoir having the same steady-state flow capacity. The results of Katz and Tek 5 are equivalent. Russell and Prats4 also speculate that a multi-layered reservoir with crossflow will behave as a homogeneous system after long enough production time "... providing the contrast in kh between layers is not too great". They also suggest that, at intermediate times, "... the relative positions of the layers with respect to each other will have a great influence on the production behavior and on the time at which the previously mentioned large-time approximation might be valid". Katz and Tek5 remark upon the mathematical difficulty of treating a reservoir having many layers or strata. If relative position of the layers is also

YUGOSLAVIA is one of the smaller countries in Europe-about twice the size of Pennsylvania -but one of the richest nations in variety and quantity of minerals on the Continent. The country, just now beginning the pangs of a real industrial birth, has a mining history that goes back as far as the sixth century, B. C. Among others, the Romans exploited Yugoslavia&apos;s lead and zinc deposits, and there was intensive mining during the Middle Ages. But until now, the country&apos;s industrial development was such that it made no great demand on the mining industry for development or expansion. Conversations with Yugoslavian officials in New York give the impression that they are interested in two things. They need money and they need trained engineers to solve their mining problems. Yugoslavia appears to be attempting to attract both foreign money and foreign technical skill. They want financial aid in the form of loans. The U. S. Government has given aid to Yugoslavia in the shape of armaments, foodstuffs, and equipment. Recently, American banks have advanced funds.

Jan 5, 1954

By K. U. Snowden, J. N. Greenwood

CRACKS which form in lead exposed to fluctuating stress frequently follow a rectangular pattern. It is well known that under ordinary atmospheric conditions these cracks are intercrystalline. On the other hand after fabrication the crystal grains in lead are in general irregular polygons. The observed facts appear to be mutually contradictory. Re-examination of some lead failures has confirmed that the rectangular cracks are intercrystal- line. It follows therefore that under fluctuating stress some of the grains lose their irregular outlines and become approximately regular polygons of cubic type. G. R. Gohn and W. C. Ellis* suggest that this is due to recrystallization during the life of the part, in such a way that the new grain boundaries are aligned at 45 deg to the longitudinal strain prior to the formation of the fatigue crack. Experiments at Baillieu Laboratory—Some recent experiments carried out in the Baillieu Laboratory in conjunction with the Broken Hill Associated Smelters have thrown some light on this transition. A test piece of pure lead was polished chemically

Jan 1, 1959

By A. Donald Kelmers, Forest G. Seeley, B. Zane Egan

INTRODUCTION Coal ash, presently the fifth most abundant of the solid minerals produced in the United States, is expected to become the fourth most abundant by the end of this decade (1). The production of fly ash from the combustion of pulverized coal amounted to a total of 44 million metric tons (Mt) in 1977 and is expected to Increase to 91 Mt by 1985. Coal ash, which results from the Inorganic clay and mineral content of the coal, contains several elements and thus can be considered as a mined and crushed mineral resource rather than a waste material Furthermore, potential problems associated with fly-ash disposal ponds and the leaching of potentially hazardous elements through groundwater infiltration and/or rainfall provide additional incentive for processing fly ash for environ- mental control as well as for the recovery of certain metal values. Fly ash could provide an abundant domestic source of aluminum and several other metals Aluminum is now recovered from bauxite, and over 90% of this ore is imported since domestic sources are limited and cannot meet the U.S. demand There is a close relationship between the aluminum content of fly ash and the domestic consumption of this metal (Table 1).

Jan 1, 1981

By W. Evans, C. E. Ells

The agglomeration of hydrogen in pure aluminum and A1-Mg alloys has been studied through use of hydrogen introduced into the metal by cyclotron proton irradiation. Both the growth and dispersal of the agglomerates have been followed by metal-lographic techniques. During the cyclotron irradiation, agglomeration occurs at temperatures i 100°C for hydrogen concentrations as low as 1 ppm. On heating at elevated temperatures, 300°C to 600°C, intragranular agglomerates first coarsen and then disperse. The agglomerates formed at grain boundaries are much larger than the intragranular agglomerates; with hydrogen concentra- tions > 10 PPm, heating for 1 hr at 500°C results in extensive grain-boundary cracking. The hydrogen agglomerates have been shown to inhibit grain growth, but no inhibition of recrystallization has been observed. The ability of hydrogen to enter aluminum at a free surface, combined with its high-diffusion rate at elevated temperatures, accounts both for growth and dispersal of the agglomerates. Irradiations at elevated temperatures give results consistent with the explanation proposed for agglomerate behavior on post-irradiation heating. 1 HE formation of hydrogen-filled bubbles, or blisters. in aluminum and its alloys has been studied for over&apos; thirty years. The work up to 1952 has been reviewed by Kostron&apos; and since then Ransley and

Jan 1, 1963

By Ta M. Li

Recent start-up of the Pinto Valley mine and mill is expected to add to domestic copper mine capacity by some 62,500 tpy. Owned and operated by Cities Service Co.&apos;s Miami Operations, the complex lies approximately 5% miles west of Miami, Ariz. The estimated $100- million project, the largest single construction project ever undertaken by Cities Service, includes the Pinto Valley open pit mine, a 40,000-tpd concentrator, and a 10-mile slurry pipeline that will transport a 28% copper concentrate slurry to a new filter plant located in Miami. Concentrate will be treated nearby at Inspiration Consolidated Copper Co.&apos;s new smelter complex. The current pit design contains reserves of approximately 350 million tons of ore averaging 0.44% Cu. Based on an initial production target of 40,000 tpd ore and 60,000 tpd waste, mine life is estimated at 24 years. The current stripping ratio is 1.5: 1, requiring the ultimate removal of more than 500 million tons of waste and leach-grade material.

Jan 6, 1975