Search Documents

By L. W. Holm, G. G. Bernard

Laboratory experiments were conducted to determine the effect of foam on gas flow in porous media. Previous studies have indicated that foam may be applicable as a restrictive agent in influencing underground gas flow. Foam was found to be exceedingly effective in reducing the permeability of porous media to gas. Consolidated and unconsolidated sands with specific permeabilities of 100 to 146,000 md had, in the presence of foam, gas permeabilities that were less than 1 per cent of the specific permeability; in many cases the gas permeability was practically zero. Foam reduced the gas permeability of loose sand to a much greater degree than that of a tight sand. For example, the permeability of a 125,000-md sand was reduced to 3 md while the permeability of a 4,000-md sand was reduced to 7 md. This effect should cause, to some degree, selective plugging of high permeability channels in various oil displacement processes. The presence of oil in a porous medium decreased the effectiveness of foam in reducing gas permeability; apparently oil acts as a foam depressant. However, it was found that certain foaming agents were very effective in reducing permeability even. in the presence of oil. Also, continuous injection of other foaming agents increased their effectiveness, when oil was present. The effect of foam on permeability of porous media to gas was studied as a function of foaming agent concentration and injection rate, absolute permeability, total pressure, pressure gadient, length of porous system, brine concentration and time. INTRODUCTION The use of surface active agents in flood water to increase the recovery of oil has been studied in the laboratory and in the field for decades, with rather limited success. In recent years a new approach to the problem was proposed. Instead of using an aqueous solution of surfactant as an oil recovery agent, Bond and Holbrook2 proposed that the oil recovery agent be a mixture of surfactant solution and gas. In their method, a water-soluble surface active agent with foam-producing characteristics is injected into an underground formation as an aqueous slug. This slug is followed by gas to produce a foam within the rock. Foams are defined as "agglomerations of gas bubbles separated from each other by thin liquid films'! A foam is fundamentally an unstable system. The foam process for oil recovery has since been studied by other investigators. Fried 1 has shown that foam can displace from porous structures oil that normally is unrecoverable by conventional water or gas drives. This superior oil displacing action is believed to be the result of several factors: (1) foam introduces into the reservoir many resilient interfaces of various sizes and curvatures, which increase the probability that a proper combination of forces for oil displacement will be created; (2) foam has appreciable viscosity which improves mobility ratio and contact efficiency; (3) foam accentuates the trapped gas effect because high gas saturations are possible without producing high gas/oil ratios. Deming4 studied the effect of various foam properties on the displacement of liquid. He found that (1) high foaming ability favors high displacement efficiency; (2) high foam stability is not necessary for high displacement efficiency; (3) displacement efficiency decreases with increase in plasticity of foam and (4) displacement efficiency is unaffected by surface tension of foaming agent solution. One of the important aspects of this oil recovery process is the effect of foam on gas permeability. The simultaneous flow of gas and liquid in porous media has been studied by numerous investigators and a large amount of literature exists on the subject. In this previous work, gas and liquid have generally been considered as essentially independent phases, whose flow characteristics are related through the saturation parameter. Foam, however, is a material with properties that are considerably different from those of its components; for example, the viscosity of a foam is greater than either of its components. Gas flow in a porous medium in the presence of foam should be considerably different

Jan 1, 1965

Exxaro installed their first ultra fines treatment plant at Leeuwpan Coal mine. The plant is now fully operational and results already show that the plant has great potential. The plant was designed and installed by DRA. Several challenges were faced during the installation due to the space constraints in the Leeuwpan plant. Efficiency tests were conducted on both modules after commissioning and showed very promising results. A lower ash product with a higher yield can be produced with the fine coal dense medium cyclones compared to the spirals previously employed.

Jan 1, 2010

By M. F. Burr, F. V. Lenel, G. S. Ansell

The mechanism of materials transport was studied in a model experiment in which a silver sphere was sintered to a silver plate under an applied external stress near 800° C. For this purpose the rate of growth of the neck between the sphere and the plate which is proportional to the strain rate of the creep process involved in a neck growth was determined by measuring the change in electrical resistance of the away. This rate of neck growth will depend upon the magnitude of the applied external stress. By measuring the rate just before and just after a change in the external load and therefore the applied stress, the relationship between strain rate and stress can be derived. For material transport by slip in a pure metal it is expected that the strain rate should be proportional to the 4.5th power of the stress, while for transport by diffusional flow the strain rate should be proportional to the first power of the stress. It was found that for stresses above 5 X 10' dynes per sq cm (70 psi) the exponent in the stvain rate-stress relationship was near 4.5 while for a stress of 0.7 x 108 dynes per sq cm (10 psi) an exponent of 1.8 was determined indicating that under the conditions of the experiment the transport mechanism for creep in silver shifts from diffusional flow to slip in the region of 0.7 x 106 dynes per sq cm (10 psi). The importance of these findings for an understanding of the mechanism of material transport in conventional sintering (without an external load) is pointed out. In a paper by Early et al.,' the mechanism of material transport during sintering was treated as a creep process. It was pointed out that two possible types of creep processes could operate during sintering. In one of these material transport takes place by vacancy diffusion due to a gradient in chemical potential. The vacancy sinks in this diffusion process may be either grain boundaries, as in Herring-Nabarro microcreep, or regions beneath a surface of small radius of curvature. The diffusive transport may be by volume, grain boundary, or surface diffusion. In the other mechanism, creep takes place by slip, i.e., dislocation motion with its rate generally controlled by dislocation climb. One method of distinguishing between these two modes of materials transport is to investigate the creep rate, i.e., the rate of material transport as a function of stress. For material transport by vacancy diffusion, the creep rate is proportional to the stress.' For creep by slip, controlled by dislocation climb, the creep rate is proportional to a power of the stress. For pure metals this power is 4.5;374 for dispersion-strengthened material a fourth power relationship can be derived.5 This difference in the stress dependence of the strain rate is illustrated schematically in Fig. 1, in which the logarithm of strain rate is plotted vs the logarithm of the stress for material transport in a pure metal by vacancy flux and by dislocation climb. The stress range in which the two types of material transport overlap would be expected to be relatively small. In the experiments described by Early and coworkers compacts pressed from spherical copper powder were sintered isothermally under an applied axial external load in a dilatometer. During sintering the magnitude of the applied external load was changed and the rate of axial shrinkage of the compact before and after the load change determined. In order to find the stress dependence of the strain rate the magnitude of the stress acting on the neck area between the spherical particles before and after the load change had to be calculated. This stress is the resultant of the stresses due both to the externally applied load and to surface tension. The stress due to surface tension is a function of the geometry of the powder compacts. It can be determined, at least for simple geometrical arrays,'76 but it is difficult to obtain exact values of the stresses for actual powder compacts when only average values of particle diameters and of neck diameters between particles are available. The calculation of stress and the strain rate-stress relationship is therefore only very approximate.

Jan 1, 1968

Jan 1, 1975

By B. P. Bellport

When tunneling crews set world records in rates of advance by boring up to 403 ft in a single day and 6851 ft in a month, then the age of rapid under- ground excavation is near at hand with its attendant economies. Boring machines excavate tunnels with uniform diameters and smooth walls and only about 5% overbreak compared to 20% overbreak experienced by conventional drill-blast methods. This advantage minimizes the concrete required for lining and because a circular section is more nearly self-supporting there is less of a need for supports before the concrete is placed. In addition, laser beam guidance improves the accuracy of excavation with boring machines. In the first successful application of laser guidance for boring machines in the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project, the final excavation was within 5/8 in. of the established line and grade over a 10.079- ft advance.

Jan 1, 1971

By Nicholas J. Grant, Raymond E. Cairns

A high-purity chromium, made by solid-state extrusion, and a series of molten, extruded, dilute alloys containing carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur were studied to establish the effects of composition, cooling rate, grain size, strain rate, and prior strain on the transition temperature for brittle THE transition from ductile to brittle fracture with decreasing temperature remains of extreme interest especially among the refractory metals, such as tungsten, molybdenum, and chromium, which have relatively high transition temperatures. Fracture, yield stress, and hardness. Tension tests at a strain rate of 0.015 per min were generally utilized. Results are interpreted in terms of the quantity of each element retained in solid solution. Of these elements, chromium has been studied the least, but deserves additional attention because of its superior oxidation resistance for high-temperature use. In the past, impurity elements which have received attention are carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur;'-' of these, nitrogen has usually been considered to be the most detrimental. Unfortunately, because of different levels of both specific and total impurity content, and because of the many different test and evaluation techniques used, a clear, definitive picture of brittle fracture in chromium has not been forthcoming. However, many

Jan 1, 1964

By J. K. Abraham

In recent years there has been interest displayed in the precipitation phenomena occurring in austenitic alloys based on the binary Fe-Ni system.1'2 Previous communications have been extended covering the kinetics of clustering in the Fe-Ni-Ti system and the effect of cluster size on subsequent mechanical properties.3'4 To a great extent the question of coherency, which has a dominant role in determining the mechanical properties, is dictated by the degree of misfit between the precipitate and matrix. Thus, the change in lattice parameter of the matrix with composition is an important variable that should be examined. The lattice parameter, ao, of austenite was determined for Fe-29.75 Ni-1 to 6 Ti and Fe-27 Ni-1 to 10 Ti alloys in this study. The alloys used in this investigation were melted in a vacuum induction furnace from a starting stock of plast iron (99.95), electrolytic nickel (99.9), and ti- tanium sheet (99.5) in a MgO crucible. The alloy compositions in atomic percent are given in Table I and their relative position in the Fe-Ni-Ti ternary is indicated in Fig. 1. The chemical analyses were taken from the homogenized bulk materials treated in a manner related earlier.3 A diamond file was used to obtain powder from the bulk. To remove the stresses induced by filing, the powders were austenitized at 1875°F for

Jan 1, 1969

By William Catron, Cyril U. Colledge

BECAUSE the rich La Colorada orebody of the Cananea Consolidated Copper Co. does not outcrop at surface, after its discovery (by churn drill) and before mining was begun, a large amount of development work was done to learn the shape and extent of the ore and to provide for economic and effective mining. As these openings progressed, the actual shape of the orebody became known and with this knowledge came the realization that mining this rich and unusual deposit without loss of ore or danger to workmen presented several difficult problems. This paper will describe one of these problems; namely, the handling of an inverted cone-shaped core of barren rock, on the periphery of and below which the ore occurred. It was clear that as the ore was mined out from around and under this inverted cone of rock, weighing about 3,000,000 tons, it would hang over the workings, held suspended only by its own tensile strength and threatening to crash into the stopes below with disastrous results to men and mine. The method of mining developed during the years 1928, 1929 and 1930 anticipated and provided for the eventual collapse of this core of rock. In November 1936 the core settled down gradually on the edges of the stopes descending a total of about 50 ft. vertically. The men in the stopes had ample warning and no lives were endangered. There were no air blasts in the mine. The core broke loose from its top support at the 500-ft. level along old fracture planes and evidently is crushed to the ninth level. Movement was of short duration; the following shift went to work in the stopes as usual. No ore was lost. GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE The shape of the orebody is illustrated in Fig. 1. The geology of the Colorada orebody has been described by V. D. Perry1 and by W. G.

Jan 1, 1938

By F. Waanders, Campbell. Q.

This project was specifically aimed at using increased acceleration separation, as a method to optimize the recovery of gold in an ore body mainly consisting of hematite where the specific gravity of gold is much higher in comparison to the carrying material, making it possible to separate gold from other materials like silica, base metals and their oxides, usually associated with gravitation-gold-recovery-processes. The ore body investigated in this project originated from a gold reef containing a large portion of gold locked inside the gold pyrite complexes, which was mined and treated in a conventional way. After gold extraction, the material was pumped to a tailings dump and the gold extraction of this dump was investigated. In order to assemble a concentration plant setup, the head grade and size distribution of the dump and bulk sample were determined accurately. Chemical analysis and mineralogical examination were done on a representative sample of the bulk sample, to determine the chemical composition of the material. The results obtained thereof were evaluated and a pilot plant was configured. A bulk sample was processed in the pilot plant and the results were evaluated. The results at optimum acceleration forces applied, resulted in a recovery of 5% of the mass, with a gold concentrate of 90 g/t Au, which represented 58% recovery of the gold. The hematite with high specific gravity as main phase positively influenced the high acceleration separation process. It proved that if the specific gravity of particles in a suspension were increased, high acceleration separation could be applied effectively to separate much smaller particle sizes.

Jan 1, 2014

By Shugang Hu

According to XRD, DTA and SEM detections, the hydration products of blast furnace slag (BFS) based cementing material SL, SLG. were studied in different age periods. The XRD analysis of cementing material SL hydration products showed that the composition of hydration products were mainly amorphous substances, few crystalline substances. Characteristic peak of ettringite hadn?t been found in the spectral line of DTA, and it hadn?t been found in the figures of SEM, either, which was accordant with the conclusion that the cementing performance of SL mainly coming from gel of hydrated calcium silicate (CSH) and hydrated calcium aluminate. However, the main hydration products of SLG are Aft, CSH, and AFm, which are similar to Portland cement. All results suggest that BFS is a suitable base material for cementation. Keywords: blast furnace slag, backfilling cementing material, hydration products, cementing performance

Sep 1, 2012

By Robert W. Freedman

As part of a continuing effort to reduce the weight and bulk of equipment that mining personnel must carry underground, the Bureau of Mines and the Mining Enforcement and Safety Administration (MESA) investigated accurate and convenient gas samplers for use by mine inspectors in sampling mine atmospheres. The samplers are septum-stoppered glass vials commonly used for routine blood sampling. These lightweight, compact samplers yield results comparable with those obtained with conventional bottle samplers of 250-ml nominal capacity.

Jan 1, 1975

[United States PAGE Alabama 226 Alaska 226 Arizona 226 Arkansas 227 California 227 Colorado 230 Connecticut 231 Delaware 282 District of Columbia 232 Florida 232 Georgia 232 Idaho 232 Illinois 233 Indiana 234 Iowa 234 Kansas 234 Kentucky 234 Louisiana 235]

Jan 1, 1928

Jan 1, 1932

By R. Harris

The vacuum thermal route for magnesium production today accounts for roughly 80% of the global production of magnesium despite significant investment in the competing electrolytic technologies, This is up from 30% of the global production 10 years ago and is all the more significant because global magnesium production has more than doubled in the same time, A review of the sophisticated anhydrous magnesium chloride production technologies provides some explanation for this sea change in technology usage, However, an examination of the economic factors provides compelling reasons, The present review outlines some of the salient strengths and weaknesses of the competing technologies, It also offers suggestion as to where future R and D and economic effort needs to be vested to improve the sustainability of the world magnesium market in terms of its value and impact.

Jan 1, 2006

By John J. Sammarco

The U.S. Bureau of Mines seeks to increase safety and efficiency in U.S. coal mines. One approach is to develop technology for automation of a continuous mining machine. Realization of an autonomous mining machine requires development of subsystems for machine intelligence, navigation-positioning, and computer control. This report focuses on investigation of one subsystem, an onboard heading system, which would be responsible for determining and controlling machine heading. The onboard heading system investigated is a multisensor system to determine machine heading, pitch, and roll. A directional gyroscope provides heading (yaw), fluxgate sensors provide a compass heading, and gravity-referenced clinometers give machine pitch and roll. The system utilizes a dedicated microcontroller networked to an external system of computers. Tram commands, supplied to the network from external computers, are executed by the onboard system. Sensor feedback is employed for closed-loop control of machine heading by controlling pivots and turns. The report discusses operating limitations and error sources of system sensors and presents test results of closed-loop control of machine heading. Results of tests with a mining machine are used to exhibit various sensor shortcomings and to evaluate control of pivots and turns.

Jan 1, 1990

By O E. Crenwelge

Seismograph measurements are usually made near blasting operations solely for the purpose of monitoring compliance with governmental regulations. However, recordings of seismograph signals have far greater potential than this, if the proper procedures are used for analyzing the transient data.

Jan 1, 1991

By Malcolm J. Robinson

Over 80% of Australia's population lives within 200 km of the coast, 70% in 10 major coastal cities. Potential cement raw materials are widely distributed but deposit size, quality, transport, market and environmental considerations are important in determining economic value. Major production locations are in a variety of geological environments ranging from Lower Paleozoic crystalline limestones to Tertiary and Recent polyzoal limestones and limesands, both onshore and offshore. Raw material transportation is by road, rail, sea, aerial ropeway and pipeline; road/rail transportation of the finished product is traditional but movement by sea of clinker and cement is increasingly a feature of the industry.

Jan 1, 1982

By Sung-Hyun Park

Core sediment samples collected from the KODOS area of the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone in the NE Equatorial Pacific were analyzed for chemical and mineralogical compositions to investigate the depth- and time-related variation of paleoenvironmental and paleoceanographic conditions during their deposition. These core sediments are divided into three layers from top to bottom by its color; 1) brown layer (Unit I), 2) pale brown layer (Unit II), and 3) black brown layer (Unit III). Geochronology of 10Be indicated the depositional age of Quaternary for Units I and II and of late Pliocene for Unit III with a potential short hiatus between them. Analyses of interelemental correlation identified three major groups of elemental groups that show moderate-to-strong correlations: 1) Al, Ti, K, and Fe representing for terrestrial alumino-silicate fraction of sediments, 2) Ca, P, REEs, Cu, and Zn for biogenic apatite, and 3) Mn, Ni, and Co for hydrogenous Mn-oxide. With an exception, Fe content was very high and showed fair correlations with Mn, Ni, and Co in Unit III. Unit III shows high smectite but low quartz and illite contents compared to the overlying two units, indicative of reduced supply of terrestrial materials. In a meanwhile, major elements (Fe2O3, CaO, P2O5), minor elements (Cu, Zn) and REEs are highly enriched in Unit III compared to the upper two units. All these elements other than Fe reflect the fraction of biogenic apatite, which indicates higher fraction of biogenic components in Unit III. This is also supported by higher amount of smectite formed by the consumption of siliceous biogenic components. The reduced supply of terrestrial material and/or increased productivity of surface water at the time of Unit III deposition are attributed to Pliocene warming preceding Northern-pole glaciation during Quaternary. Unit III also includes clinoptilolite and unidentified 8Å mineral, likely amphibole, that are absent in Units I and II, suggestive of the possibility of different source region and/or materials during Pliocene. Higher contents of Mn and Fe in Unit III are likely due to the high fraction of Mn-oxide that was formed by diagenetic process after deposition.

Jan 1, 2003

This review provides a new and comprehensive summary on studying colloidal interactions encountered in mineral processing with representative examples for critical information, which are of great scientific and practical importance. Colloidal interactions play a vital role in mineral processing, including grinding, physical separation (particularly flotation), dewatering and tailings management (Fig. 1). Despite great energy input in comminution to liberate valuables from gangues, hetero-coagulation between valuables and gangues would prevent the separation of valuables from gangues. On the other hand, selective coagulation/flocculation to increase the size of desired fine particles could enhance physical separation and dewatering, while dispersion is needed for fine grinding. The importance of colloidal interactions is becoming increasingly significant as we process ever more finely disseminated low-grade ores as a result of inevitable depletion of high-grade ore deposits. To control the state of colloidal dispersions by creating favorable conditions, it is of paramount importance to study colloidal interactions in a relevant system and understand underlying mechanisms. 

By John T. Norton, R. E. Hiller

The tremendous increase in the use of metals that have been prcpared by the various cold-working processes during recent years has greatly stimulated the investigation of problems concerned with the fundamental nature of these processes. It has been observed in practice that different methods of bringing about the same dimension changes in a sample result in a rather wide range of properties. Cold working reduces the ductility of a metal, or what is perhaps more nearly correct, its "working capacity," and naturally the manufacturer wishes to produce an article that has as large a working capacity as possible, and to produce it with the smallest number of operations. It has also been known for some time that cold deformation produces a parallel alignment of the crystal grains of a metal, and that the type of this preferred orientation depends to some extent at least upon particular processes employed in the deformation. The present investigation has for its purpose the study of the relations between the various factors of a cold-working process and the preferred orientation of the metjal crystals resulting from this deformation. The work is chiefly confined to a study of cold-drawn seamless tubing. Preparation of Samples The tubing samples used in this investigation were made of steel having a carbon content of 0.10 to 0.20 per cent, and were drawn on a standard type of draw bench. In order to obtain the large reductions, the annealed stock was coated with lead, for purposes of lubrication. The reductions of area stated refer to reduction from the annealed condition without intermediate heat treatment. The cold work was done as nearly as possible at room temperature. The samples of wire and strip used for purposes of comparison were of steel of approximately the same carbon content and were prepared in the manner indicated. X-ray Method of Investigation The condition of preferred orientation in cold-worked samples is best investigated by the X-ray method that employs a small circular beam of * Assoriate Professor of Physics of Metals, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. t Graduate Student, Department of Metallurgy, Massarhusetts Institute of Technology.

Jan 1, 1932