Search Documents

By Robert E. Bush, E. S. Mardock

The object of this paper is to report recent developments in the quantitative interpretation of radioactivity logs. The use of reference lines is described in the application of the new zero radioactivity reference line for the determination of neutron derived porosities is discussed. Illustrated examples are shown of logs from the reef limestone of the North Snyder Field and from the Lansing-Kansas City limestone of central Kansas. A method of using an interrelation factor calculated from the neutron and gamma ray curves, called the neutron Productivity number, for the estimation of productivity from sandstone formations is discussed. When used in a relative manner the neutron productivity number has aided in Predicting whether a given zone will produce gas or liquid or whether it is too shaly to produce. Examples of logs from wells in the Freites District, Venezuela, and in East Texas are shown to illustrate the application of the neutron productivitv number. INTRODUCTION The petroleum industry was introduced to some of the preliminary results of investigations into the quantitative interpretation of radioactivity logs in October, 1949." It was stated at that time that the methods presented were entirely relative because they involved the use of reference points obtained from the radioactivity log, i.e., shale reference lines, dense zone reference lines, or a combination of both shale and dense zone reference lines. These relative methods offered many advantages to the industry in interpreting radioactivity logs in terms of porosity with particular application to limestone and dolomite reservoirs. However, these relative methods did not offer the wide range of applicability desired because the esta1)lishment of reliable reference points from shale in some areas were difficult. It was recognized that a more reliable mean; of establishing reference lines was vitally needed. Such a method is now available through the introduction of an instrumeutal zero device. It is the purpose of this paper to discuss the application of this new zero reference to the quantitative interpretation of radioactivity logs. Previously all applications of quantitative interpretations of radioactivity logs have been made in limestone reservoirs with little or no emphasis placed on sandstone reservoirs. A brief resumé of investigations into the quantitative interpretation of radioactivity logs in sandstone reservoirs is presented here. This discussion deals primarily with the interrelation of the gamma ray and neutron curves and the response of the latter to the density of the fluids filling the pore space in relatively homogeneous sandstones of uniform porosity. The authors believe that the methods presented herein are only applicable locally to specific fields and reservoirs, and that they probably do not offer a wide range of applicability. However, tile authors believe that the wider use of the new instrumental zero references in sand areas will reveal more information about the specific response of the gamma ray and neutron curves to changes in lithology and saturation. Two applications of quantitative interpretation using the new instrumental zero references are presented. Examples are given which show the comparison of logs and porosity in the limestones and dolomites of West Texas and Kansas. Logs of wells in 'Venezuela and East Texas are compared with the drill stem test data, production data, etc.. to illurtrate the interrelation of the gamma ray and neutron curve: and the rise of methods involving these interrelations to determine certain saturation variables. THE QUANTITATIVE APPLICATION OF RADIOACTIVITY LOGS TO LIMESTONE AND DOLOMITE RESERVOIRS Tile theoretical basis for the gamma ray and neutron curves has been discussed elsewhere.9 he method of recording the logs and apparatus involved has also been thoroughly covered and will not be discussed here.'."".'" It has been shown that the neutron curve responds exponentially to liquid filled porosity over the 1 1/2 to 35 per cent

Jan 1, 1951

By G. W. Nabor, H. J. Ramey

A blotter-type electrolytic model was utilized to prepare flow diagrams for a field test of the in-situ combustion process. It is pointed out that the areal sweep of a combustion pattern is similar to sweep patterns that would be developed at an infinite mobility ratio, which exists (approximately) across a combustion front because of the complete removal of liquids from the sand behind it. The precision of the blotter method was tested by comparison with results obtained by other techniques and was found to be satisfactory. The blotter-type model will not furnish as much information as more elaborate and expensive potentiometric models, but its speed of operation and ease of construction make it a highly satisfactory tool to determine areal sweep patterns. A tabulation of sweep efficiency and mobility ratio is furnished for various well geometries. INTRODUCTION In connection with the first field experiment with the in-situ combustion method of oil recovery," flow diagrams for the unique well geometry and boundary conditions involved in the subject test were developed. From these diagrams, information concerning the areal sweep and distribution of flow was obtained. A survev of the literature on potentiometric models, utilized to solve two-dimensional flow problems,1,2,3,4,5,6,8,9,10 indicated that the information desired could be obtained by means of a blotter-type model by making certain modifications in the technique. The following discussion describes the application of the modified blotter-type electrolytic model to the solution of the problem of the flow of gases in an oil reservoir for an engineering appraisal of the progress of the combustion front during the first field experiment. Considerable information has been published on the theoretical aspects of electrical model techniques. One author stated that:' "The models are based on the observation that since the velocity of an ion in an electrolytic system is proportional to the potential gradient, just as the velocity of a fluid particle in a porous medium is proportional to the pressure gradient, the paths of the ions in the electrolytic systems must be similar to those of the fluid particles in a porous medium with the same geometry and equivalent boundary conditions." This suggestion of a real analogy has been established repeatedly by comparisons of analytic derivations with model results. The analogy between the movement of a combustion front and the model results is not as apparent, since the combustion process differs from water flooding and gas cycling in that the velocity of the burning front is different from the velocity of the injected fluid at the front in combustion. Analogy between electric current flow and movement of the burning front exists because the local velocity of the burning front is proportional to the air (mass) velocity at this point (assuming frontal temperatures are at least as high as the ignition temperature of the fuel). Most model studies fall into one of two categories: (1) electron conduction, or (2) ionic conduction models. Examples of these are models which employ as flow media either a thin metal sheet, or a porous blotter saturated with an electrolyte, respectively. Of the two, the porous blotter model, an ionic conduction model, appears to be the most adaptable to the flow problem that results when using in-situ combustion. This problem requires that the mobility of the particles in the model be controlled analogous to the mobility of gas flowing through burned sand of high permeability to gas and then through oil sand of lower permeability to gas. Although the blotter model has heretofore been

Jan 1, 1955

By HILLARY W.

THAT colleges and technical schools constitute a vital factor in our industrial system is being realized more and more of late years. Consequently it is desirable that there should be a constant interchange of ideas between the 'school and the industries and that there should be a more intimate contact between the student and his future employer. Business and industry demand certain proficiencies and qualifications of the student and he, in turn, sees certain rewards and advantages in the industry. . In a meeting of this kind, whose primary purpose is to promote a greater intimacy between the students and those men who are active in the mining profession, it is quite fitting that each state his demnds upon the other in order to establish a common understanding. It is probable that a student, not being conversant with actual conditions in the industry, may be unfair in what he asks of his employer. Therefore criticism, constructive or other- wise, is not only accepted, but is invited.

Jan 1, 1930

By H. N. Mead

In a reservoir when gas comes out of solution and rises, additional pressure is created because of the change in position of this gar in the bounded volume. If this pressure effect is not taken into account as a pseudo-influx ill mate rial balance calculations on reservoirs in which there is evolving gas, an error is introduced that is directly proportional to the length of oil column and amount of gas evolved and inversely proportional to the reservoir pressure. In reservoirs with small oil column this pseudo-influx is of little importance. The larger the oil column the more important the effect becomes. The most important application, however, will be for reservoirs with declining pressure in which increasing water entry has been indicated by material balance calculations. It could be that this indication is the result of the cited pseudo-influx and not water entry at all. This paper attempts to explain this phenomenon in relation to material balance calculations and prevents an approximate method of determining tile pseudo-influx. INTRODUCTION Only recently has the pressure-volume relationship of gas rising in a liquid appeared in engineering literature, although its effect has been discussed for several years—especially among engineers engaged in drilling operations. The writer published a paper in 1957 in which this phenomenon was examined in relation to blowouts in drilling wells.' Also, in 1957 Stegemeier and Matthews' authored a paper in which the relationship was presented with respect to pressure build-up tests when shutting in producing wells. In this paper the effect will be called "pressure inversion" which is descriptive of the phenomenon. Fundamentally, the effect just mentioned is the result of changing the position of a quantity of energy contained within the gas itself (as a result of its compression) within the bounded volume in which the gas exists. If the gas were allowed to expand "beyond all bounds" there could be no pressure inversion effect. This is because all of the energy contained within the gas as a result of compression would have been re- PRESSURE INVERSION A phase that has not been discussed in the literature is the effect of pressure inversion upon material balance calculations in reservoirs in which the reservoir pressure drops with reservoir withdrawal and is below the bubble point. This action releases solution gas which, after the critical gas saturation has been reached, will tend to rise and collect at the top of the reservoir. The pseudo-influx caused by this effect could be great enough in reservoirs of large oil column and high permeability to render invalid any analyzer studies made on them — if pressure inversion has not been taken into account. Most suspect would be those reservoirs with large oil column in which increasing water entry has been predicted but the bottom wells have not yet produced water. Example 1 Simply stated, this phenomenon exists in oil reservoirs because of the difference in density and expansibility between gas and oil. For example, if a bubble of gas exists at the bottom of a 1,000-ft column of oil having a gradient of 0.30 psi/ft with the pressure at the top of the column zero, the bubble of gas will be compressed to a pressure of 300 psi. If temperature and the combined volume of the oil column and the gas bubble remain constant, as the gas bubble rises in the oil column it will have the same volume and consequently the same pressure at any point. Under these conditions when thc bubble reaches the top of the oil column, the pressure will be approximately 300 psi at the surface and approximately 600 psi at the bottom of the oil column. If it is assumed that the oil is incompressible the pressures will be exactly 300 and 600 psi, respectively.

By C. G. Dunn

This note describes a method for revealing micro-structures in tantalum through an {hkl} effect which was found during a study involving amorphous and crystalline tantalum oxides. Three steps are involved. First, an amorphous film of Ta2O5 is formed anodically1 on the surfaces of the tantalum. The amount needed depents on the thickness of the substrate tantalum; 1600Å of oxide, however, is generally satisfactory in the 1/2 -mil (12 µ) to 3-mil thickness range. The film at this point is uniform in color. Second, the anodized specimen is heated to 800°C in. vacuo during a period of a few minutes and held at temperature for 5 min. During such a treatment some oxygen leaves the oxide through dissolution into the substrate tantalum (e.g., at 10-8 Torr oxide films thinner than about 800 completely disappear on 5-mil strip). Considerable crystallization of the amorphous oxide also occurs adjacent to the metal/oxide interface but not throughout the oxide thickness. The thickness of oxide needed as a residue is not too critical; values between 500 and 1000Å (optical estimate') may be most useful. (The presence of a residual oxide layer after the heat treatment usually is not apparent; in fact, in most instances the surfaces have a metallic appearance. This can be the case also for thicker residual films needed in the detection of a crystalline oxide phase by surface X-ray diffraction—e.g., if the initial oxide film is 3000Å thick, enough crystalline oxide is formed for X-ray detection.) The third step eliminates the metallic appearance at the surface and reveals (or produces) a varied colored film of tantalum oxide. Two methods can be used and both will be illustrated. If the specimen is dipped in 48 pct HF for a few seconds, the tantalum is found to be covered with a multicolored oxide. Moreover the colors correlate with the grain structure of the substrate tantalum through an orientation dependence of the type illustrated in Fig. 1, where results of an orientation analysis by the Laue X-ray method have been plotted. Other film conditions would have provided a different set of colors for the same orientations. Any such correlation, however, provides a basis for a qualitative assessment of the distribution of orientations in a large sample. The cold-rolled structure of tantalum foil produced by a recrystallization anneal and a cold-rolling reduction of 95 pct is not easily obtained by usual metal-lographic methods.' The structure, however, is easily revealed by the present technique, Fig. 2. The alternative third step is to reanodize the specimen. The optical nature of the final anodic film depends on the presence of the crystalline oxide phase; color variations indicate optical thickness variations in the film. As the reanodization voltage is increased from zero, straw and light brown colors appear (as usual), followed now by variations in color from grain to grain depending on {hkl} orientation. Suitable end points, which are determined by voltage and time, are easily established. Fig. 3, for example, shows the grain structure developed in 5-mil tantalum strip during a 30-min re-crystallization and grap-growth anneal at 1800°C. An anodic film of 1600Å thickness was added prior to the special 800°C anneal. Reanodization was done at constant current density (near 0.2 ma per sq cm) in an aqueous solution of H3PO4 (0.01 pct) and was terminated after the initial brown colors were replaced by a deep blue at approximately 30 v. Although good grain contrast can be obtained with bright field illumination, even greater contrast for black and white micrographs may be obtained with polarized light, as in Fig. 3.

Jan 1, 1967

By E. V. Kleber, V. F. Novy, R. C. Vickery

The constitutional diagram has been determined for the system gadolinium-nickel. Nine intermetallic compounds have been found at compositions corresponding to the following gadolinium-nickel ratios: 3:1, 3:2, 1:1, 1:2, 1:3, 2:7, 1:4, 1:5, 2:17. The GdNi and GdNi5 compounds have congruent melting points of 1300' and 1500°C, respectively while the remaining compounds melt in-congruently. Eutectics exist at 15 wt pct Ni, 31 1/2 wt pct Ni and 87 wt pct Ni with melting points of 6703 8803 and 1220°C, respectively. IN a continuing investigation of the properties of rare earth alloys, a study has been made of the gadolinium-nickel system. Previous work encompassed the iron containing alloys and a subsequent paper will deal with the constitution of the gadolinium-cobalt system. Vogel,1 examined alloys of nickel with lanthanum and cerium. R3Ni, RNi, RNi2, RNi3, RNi4, and RNi5 compounds were found. Endter and Klemm,2 Fulling et al.3 Heumann,4 and Nowotny5 found the 1:2 compositions of this series to exist in a C-15 (face-centered cubic) structure, and the 1:5 compositions in a hexagonal system. Jepson and Duwez6 more recently examined these 1:2 and 1:5 compositions and generally confirmed earlier data while Wernick and Geller7 most recently have given additional data on the GdNi5 compound. Comparisons with our results will be made in the appropriate section of this report. EXPERIMENTAL Methods of alloy preparation, annealing procedures, and experimental techniques have been given in our earlier paper.8 Chemical analyses of the alloy samples were made by dissolving the specimen in nitric acid, precipitating the gadolinium as hydroxide and the nickel with dimethylglyoxime. Both precipitates were ignited to oxide and weighed. RESULTS Microstructure— Metallography of alloy specimens in this series has been conducted on both arc-melted and annealed materials. Etchants used have been 5 pct nital with approximately 10 pct distilled water added, for high gadolinium samples; Carapella's ferric chloride solution for intermediate compositions; and Marble's (copper sulfate) reagent for high nickel content alloys. Because of difficulties encountered in the grinding and polishing of specimens containing 40 to 75 wt pct Ni, no photomicrographs were made of such specimens. The microstructure of an arc-melted 5.3 wt pct Ni alloy is shown in Fig. 1. Light etching primary grains of gadolinium are embedded in an eutectic matrix. The microstructure of an alloy of 9.55 wt pct Ni alloy, Fig. 2, annealed 50 hr at 700°C, consists almost entirely of the intermetallic compound Gd3Ni. The structure of an arc metal alloy of approximately 19 pct Ni, Fig. 3, consists of grains of the compound GdNi embedded in the Gd3Ni2-Gd3Ni eutectic. The arc-cast structure of the 38.7 wt pct Ni alloy is shown in Fig. 4. Large primary grains of a compound rest in a matrix structure of coarse GdNi-GdNiz eutectic. Because of the occurrence of several peritectic compounds in the central region of the diagram, identification of the primary structure in this alloy is not certain. As has been indicated above, microstructures of alloy specimens containing between ca 40 and 75 wt pct Ni have not been photographed. These specimens were highly brittle, and macro- and micro-cracking were impossible to control in the grinding and polishing procedures. Prolonged annealing did not alleviate this condition. Visual observations in small specimens did, however, provide evidence for a multiplicity of phases and peritectic dissociations of compounds although rationalization of structures was not possible.

Jan 1, 1962

By W. Vickers

Single-point rotating cantilever fatigue tests have been carried out at 550" to 650°C on beryllium produced by a variety of fabrication routes. All the specimens gave similar plots of stress against number of cycles to failure but failure occurred at a lower stress range in the hot-pressed material than in the extruded material. A discontinuity or "kink" appears to exist in the curves and this is considered. A true endurance limit was not evident up to 10 cycles. When Brush hot-pressed warm-extruded beryllium was tested at 600oC a relationship where Nf = number of cycles to failure, ?ep = plastic strain range, and c = constant, was shown to be applicable for values of ?ep > 6.3 x 10-4. Further for this moterial and temperature and for frequencies between 150 and 4500 cycles per min, the variation of number of cycles to failure with frequency obeyed the expression N = Af0.44 where N =number of cycles to failure, f = frequency, and A = constant. Examination of the fracture surfaces indicated that they were generally intergranular and in all cases the higher the stress the more irregular was the fracture. Microexamination has shown that grain boundary cavities and fine intergranular cracks were associated with the fractures. REVERSING or cyclic stresses set up in fuel elements can lead to failure by fatigue. Fatigue stresses may be developed by instability of the fuel element in the coolant flow leading to rattling against the channel wall or fin vibration. Thermal cycling also sets up reversing stresses due to differential expansion of fuel and can. Fatigue resistance is of some importance therefore in the evaluation of canning materials. At the time the work described in this paper was initiated, beryllium was being considered for the can and endcaps of an advanced gas-cooled reactor fuel element. With this in mind, beryllium obtained from different manufacturing routes was tested on single-point rotating cantilever fatigue machines at temperatures the same as those envisaged in the reactor to obtain appropriate fatigue data. The results obtained indicated a discontinuity in the S-N curves coinciding with the yield stress in the specimens. Although in some cases the data is insufficient to warrant a detailed quantitative analysis, a qualitative analysis of this effect was thought to be justified. 1) EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS The materials used are given in Table I together with the production route and available analyses. The specimen shape is shown in Fig. 1. The fatigue specimens were machined slightly oversize, after which they were given a stress-relieving anneal of 1 hr at '750° C in vacuum. This was followed by an etch in sulfuric-phosphoric-chromic acid mixture down to the finished dimensions given in Fig. 1. Etching served to remove the interference colored oxide film formed on the surface during annealing and very small recrystallized surface grains too. The specimen was mounted in the grips of a cantilever machine and rotated inside a furnace controlled at the testing temperature. The specimen was loaded in increments as the speed was increased until the required load was applied at 5000 cycles per min. A revolution counter was used to record the total number of cycles.

Jan 1, 1964

By J. L. Walter, W. R. Hibbard

A GREAT deal of work has been done on the rolling of single crystals of iron. Barrett and evensoon studied end orientations of heavily cold-rolled iron crystals and found that some crystals maintained a sharp single orientation during rolling. Others rotated into two or more orientations, and some fragmented and approached the entire polycrystalline texture depending on the original orientation of both the normal and rolling directions. Barrett, Ansel, and Mehl2 studied iron-silicon alloys and found that the addition of silicon to the iron had little effect on heavily rolled polycrystalline material. Dunn3 has extensively studied the cold-rolling and recrystallization of silicon-iron single crystals. Dunn found that for single crystals having initial orientation between (110) [001] and (111) [112], the principalcomponent of the cold-rolled texture is (111) [112]. Koh and Dunn4 studied the cold-rolled textures of single crystals having initial orientations in the range (001) [110] to (111) [IT01 and found that these are stable end orientations. They also found that all orientations having a [110] direction parallel to the transverse direction rotate to either the (001) [110] or the (111) [112] stable end orientation except for orientations near (112) [11], which divide and produce a final texture consisting of (001) [110]and (111) [112] components. Crystals having a (111) <112>-type texture re-crystallized to a (120) [001] or (110) [001]-type texture. Crystals having orientations with a range of (001) to (335) in the rolling plane and [110] in the rolling direction recrystallized5 to a wide spread of the initial orientations resulting from a multiplicity of 30-deg rotations about several (110) poles. The present study was undertaken to relate other orientations of crystals of silicon-iron to their cold-rolling and recrystallization textures, so that one might rationalize polycrystalline recrystallization data on the basis of the known deformation texture and the behavior of single crystals in these orientations. PROCEDURE Samples were obtained from a cylindrical ingot of 3 pct silicon iron prepared as follows: Armco iron was melted with high-purity silicon flakes under an atmosphere of argon to minimize oxidation. The alloy was poured into a special mold to form an ingot which consisted partially of large columnar crystals. Plates were cut from the columnar portions of the ingot with the longitudinal direction parallel to the columnar axes and ground to 0.040 in. thick. The plates were heavily etched to a thickness of 0.032 in. to remove the cold-worked surface. Orientations of seventeen crystals were determined by Laue back-reflection techniques keeping the mean columnar axis as the reference direction. The plate was then cut in two, parallel to the columnar axis. One portion of the plate was rolled at room temperature parallel to the columnar axis to a reduction in thickness of 84 pct. The remaining portion of the plate was rolled also at room temperature across the columnar axis to a reduction of 66 pct, at which point the crystals began to separate at the boundaries. After rolling, nine individual crystals were removed from the strip by cutting along the crystal boundaries with a jeweler&apos;s saw. Fig. 1 shows the original orientations of the six crystals that were straight-rolled and of the three crystals (4, 7, and 8) that were cross-rolled. Each rolled crystal was carefully etched to approximately 0.002 in. thick. Textures of the cold-rolled crystals were determined by use of the diffractometer with a non-integrating sample holder. The pole figures were made for the (200) poles using molybdenum Ka radiation and were plotted by an automatic stereographic projection recorder.&apos; Spurious poles were determined by rerunning portions of the pole figures using strontium oxide to filter out the Ka radiation. The central portions of the pole figures have not been determined. The pole figures were completed to about 55 deg from the periphery at which point the sample holder interfered with passage of the beam. Following the determination of the cold-rolled

Jan 1, 1959

By Wallace W. Wilson

This DaoerAA calls to attention for the first time, to the writer&apos;s knowledge, a purported recovery of oil by substantially horizontal gas cycling that is considerably in excess of 50 per cent of the oil originally in place. The average angle of dip along the path of travel of the gas is less than one degree of arc. The best recovery by gas cycling previously brought to the writer&apos;s attention1 occurred in the case of the Mile Six Field in Peru, where about 68 per cent of the original oil in place has so far been recovered. In this case, however. the recovery was greatly aided 1)y the high dip angle of about 17.5". An approximate estimate of recovery was made by the method developed by the writer&apos; for the case of the Cook Ranch Field, using an average relative permeability ratio function dictated by past experience with a number of good quality sandstones. A result of about 40 per cent recovery of the original oil in place wa* obtained after the 8.5 pore volumes of cumulative gas cycling undergone by the Cook Ranch Field. Tile writer desires to emphasize what appears to him as the sound engineering practiced at Cook Ranch, and also the care attending the taking of data and the high quality of the calculations made. It is impossible to take issue on factual grounds with any of the conclusions drawn in the paper. It is, however, desired to point out the difficulty of explaining the unexpectedly favorable oil recovery on ordinary theoretical grounds. It would be of interest to know whether relative permeability ratios have been measured on the Cook sand. The operator is inclined to attribute some of the excess benefit to settling of the oil across the bedding planes into the lower part of the sand. It is difficult for the writer to appreciate the importance of such an effect, inasmuch as the concomitant opening of excessive vacated pore space in the upper part of the sand would he expected to cause excessive bypassing of the gas. REFERENCE 1. Welge. H. J.: "A Simplified Method for Computing Oil Recovery by (Gas or Water Drive." Trans. AIME, (1952), 195, 91. AUTHOR&apos;S REPLY TO MR. WELGE Welge has poined out clearly the difficulty of applying material-balance procedures in calculating the Performance of low-pressure, dispersed gas injection operations. There can be no argument that even with the most favorable assumptions of K,/K,, and with cumulative gas cycling in excess of normal expectations, the calculated oil recovery will be considerably less than the 72.5 per cent recovery realized from this project to Jan. 1, 1951. There probably are at least two reasons for the unusually high recovery from this reservoir, the effects of which would be difficult or impossible to calculate by known methods: 1. The operator did not use the same injection wells for the entire operation, and exercised considerable control over producing GOR by changing the locations of injection wells whenever well performance indicated excessive bypassing. Fifty-six wells were used for injection, not over 29 of which were in use simultaneously. This procedure resulted in frequent shifting of the fluid movement patterns in the reservoir and undoubtedly increased the ultimate recovery. The writer knows of no satisfactory procedure for calculating the effect of this practice. 2. Vertical movement of oil across the bedding planes of the reservoir rock hy gravity drainage tended to maintain a relatively high oil saturation, and hence a favorable K,/K, ratio, in the lower sections of the reservoir. As pointed out by Welge, this condition has aggravated the tendency for high producing GOR, but at the same time it has resulted in increased oil recovery. As may be seen from the performance charts for the various battery areas, operating (GOR&apos;S have been quite high for the last several years of reported history.

Jan 1, 1952

By Walter Crafts, D. C. Hilty

The liquidus diagram for the iron field of the Fe-S-O system has been derived experimentally. The solubility of oxygen in molten Fe-S alloys has been measured at several temperatures and found first to decrease slightly and then increase rapidly with increasing sulphur content. IT is well-known that the types, distribution, and amount of inclusions in any given steel are closely allied with the oxygen and sulphur contents of the metal, so that the term "deoxidation" as conventionally applied in steelmaking refers not only to the control of oxygen and oxide inclusions but to collateral modification of sulphide inclusions as well. Inclusions commonly occur in steel as mixtures of oxides and sulphides, sometimes closely associated and sometimes apparently completely divorced. Their effects on the properties of the metal may vary widely depending on their types and distribution as well as on their quantity. The mechanism by which inclusions form, however, and the means for controlling it are exceedingly complex and not well understood. Nevertheless, as described by Benedicts and Lofquist&apos; and by Wentrup&apos; all oxide and sulphide inclusions, excluding mechanically entrained matter, must result from specific modifications of the basic equilibria of the Fe-S-O system. In an investigation of the mechanism of deoxidation and inclusion formation being carried out at the Union Carbide and Carbon Research Laboratories, it became evident that quantitative data for the fundamental Fe-S-O system were essential to a better understanding of the problem. Consequently, the liquidus surface of the portion of the Fe-S-O diagram of interest in steelmaking has been determined, and the solubility of oxygen in liquid iron containing sulphur has been measured. Fe-S-O Diagram The portion of the Fe-S-O diagram of specific interest in steelmaking is the Fe-FeS-FeO corner. Of the contiguous binary diagrams for this partial system, only those for Fe-FeO and Fe-FeS are known with reasonable certainty.3 Several attempts to derive the FeO-FeS diagram have been made, chief among them being the work of Giani as reported by Oberhoffer,4 and, more recently, that of Vogel and Fulling." Although both Giani and Vogel and Fulling published diagrams for the FeO-FeS system, their observations indicated that the oxide component approximated Fe3O4 rather than FeO, so that there is doubt whether the system is truly binary. Benedicts and Lofquist and also Wentrup published qualitative sketches of the ternary diagram based on the assumption that it was of the type described by Marsh for a ternary system in which two of the contiguous binary systems are simple eutectic systems and the third exhibits a solubility gap in the liquid. Apparently, however, the only previous effort to establish the diagram experimentally was that of Vogel and Fülling whose results are reproduced in Fig. 1. Although defining approximately the limits of the miscibility gap and the location of the ternary eutectic, point E in Fig. I, Vogel and Fülling&apos;s diagram must be considered only semiquantitative. It was derived from a limited number of observations mainly along two quasi-binary sections, and the directions of the tie-lines and the location of the critical point, K in Fig. 1, were estimated by computation. Experimental Procedure The experimental technique employed for the present investigation involved melting mixtures of ferrous sulphide and ferric oxide in contact with iron. Since it was considered that in this part of the system the vapor pressures of sulphur and SO, are so low that they would not affect the results significantly, the melting was carried out in a current of argon to sweep out products of any initial re-

Jan 1, 1953

By R. L. Mauger, P. E. Damon, B. J. Giletti

This report includes the lead isotopic dating of a suite of galenas from Arizona and an application of the K-Ar method to the dating of a Laramide porphyry copper deposit, the Silver Bell Mining District. The lead isotopic data supports prior age assignments based upon geologic inference. The Silver Bell study illustrates the necessity of correlative geologic and petrographic investigations for the interpretation of the results of potassium-argon dating. LEAD ISOTOPIC DATING OF GALENAS FROM ARIZONA ORE DEPOSITS A group of galenas from Arizona ore deposits have been analyzed for lead isotope ratios. The results were used to calculate model ages by the. method of Russell, Stanton and Farquhar,l6 in which the age is calculated directly from the Pb206/Pb207 ratio. The use of Pb206/Pb207 ratios eliminates the errors inherent in measuring the abundance of Pb204. The Holmes-Houtermanns model is the other model commonly used for calculating model ages. Both models assume that any lead sample is composed of primeval and radiogenic components and the calculated age is the time at which the lead was extracted from its source area. Using the Holmes-Houtermanns model, a lead is ordinary if its isotopic ratios lie on an isochron. The growth curve that passes through the experimental point determines the U/Pb ratio in the source area. The RSF model assumes the source area for conformable leads is the mantle, that this has a uniform U/Pb ratio, and thus all ordinary leads must lie on a single growth curve, having a mantle U/Pb ratio. The definition of an ordinary lead differs between the models, and differences in age arise mainly from the assumptions made to evaluate parameters in the model equations. These assumptions depend on the hypothesis chosen to explain ore genesis. In the RSF Model, the Pb206/Pb207 ratio is derived as a function of time. The equation contains three undetermined parameters which are evaluated by assuming three known points lie on the curve. These are the following: 1) Primeval lead from the Canyon Diablo and Henbury meteorites, 2) Modern conformable leads which lie on Patterson&apos;s zero isochron, 3) Lead from the Bathurst, New Brunswick base metal deposits. The Bathurst deposits are postulated to be examples of "conformable base metal deposits", as proposed by Stanton.l9 A conformable deposit has a particular genetic history and, as a result, the orebody conforms to stratigraphic layering in the host rock. The metals are brought to the surface in volcanic rocks which originated in the mantle. Weathering products of these rocks, including sulfur and metals, accumulate in areas undergoing sedimentation. The formation of sulfide ion in the sediments by the action of sulfate reducing bacteria causes fixation of iron as pyrite. If the pyrite becomes concentrated in favorable stratigraphic horizons, any base metal deposit eventually formed by replacement of pyrite will have a strata bound character. Compaction and expulsion of pore water from the sediments at depth result in upward mobility of solutions containing soluble base metal chlorides. The strata with high pyrite content act as chemical traps for the base metal ions and replacement occurs. An important result of this general evolutionary model is that, if complete separation of lead and parent isotopes occurred during accumulation of the sediments, any ore deposit formed solely of metals derived from those sedimentary rocks will contain "conformable" lead. This would be true even if the actual ore deposit were formed at a later date by some epigenetic process. In this case, mineralization would be controlled by local conditions, and need not conform to stratigraphic layering. Also, any ore deposit containing lead derived from a mantle or mantle-like source, even though not conformable in Stanton&apos;s sense, will fall on the curve for conformable ores and thus give a meaningful model age. Model ages for Arizona galena deposits are listed in Table 1. Fig. 1 is a location map. Jerome-Humbolt District: Galenas from the United Verde mine at Jerome and the Iron King mine at Humbolt give model ages of 1750 m.y. and 1640 m.y. respectively. Both deposits are massive sulfide bodies in a host rock of older Precambrian

Jan 1, 1965

By K. A. Jackson, G. A. Chadwick, A. Klugert

The diffusion field ahead of a lamellar interfnce is analyzed using an electrical analog. A self-consistent solution is obtained for the shape of the interfnce and the diffusion field by an iterative process. The solutions presented here are for a 50-50 eutectoid or eutectic, The shape of the interface is found to he independent of growth velocity and lamellar spacing, and to depend on the relative values of interfacial free energies at the phase houndaries . The mode of growth of lamellar eutectics and eutectoids has been a subject of much interest for many years.1-4 Mehl and Hagel 1 have shown photomicrographs taken by Tardif when he attempted to determine experimentally the shape of an advancing pearlite interface; the results are completely ambiguous. Brandt&apos; and schei13 have made approximate calculations of the composition ahead of a lamellar growth front. The shape of the advancing front and the composition distribution ahead of the front are difficult to calculate because one depends on the other. It is the purpose of the present paper to describe a method by which this calculation has been done. Lamellar-eutectic growth usually occurs under conditions where the growth is fairly rapid, and the interface temperature is close to the eutectic temperature. The growth rate is usually determined by heat flow. Eutectoid growth, on the other hand, can best be studied by quenching to some temperature, and allowing growth to proceed isother-mally. In both cases the growth is believed to be controlled by diffusion* rather than by the atomic kinetics of the transformation. This being the case, a single treatment of the diffusion equation will apply to both cases, provided the region of the interface in a eutectic may be considered to be isothermal. If a part of the interface could appreciably change its thermodynamic driving force by advancing ahead of or lagging behind the mean interface, then the two cases would not be similar. Eutectics normally grow in temperature gradients of the or-der of a few degrees per centimeter. The normal eutectic spacing is the order of a few microns. Part of the interface would have to extend many lamellar spacings ahead of the mean interface before it experienced sensibly different conditions. The interface temperature is usually a few tenths of a degree below the eutectic temperature so that temperature differences of the order of one-thousandths of a degree (a displacement of one lamellar spacing) would be unimportant. Protrusions large compared to the mean spacing do occur when one phase only grows into a eutectic liquid. This is usually a dendritic type of growth, and easily distinguishable from the lamellar mode of growth. A single treatment of lamellar growth will apply equally well to both eutectic and eutectoid decomposition. At the interface, which as shown above is essentially isothermal, the difference between the equilibrium eutectic temperature Teu and the actual interface temperature Ti, can be divided into two parts: 1) the composition varies across the interface, so that the local equilibrium temperature is not Teu; and 2) the interface is curved, so that the local equilibrium temperature is depressed according to the Gibbs-Thompson relationship. This undercooling can be written as Teu-Ti =?T = mAC(x) + a/r(x) [1] where ?C(X) is the departure of the composition at a point x on the interface from the eutectic composition, see Fig. 1, r(x) is the local radius of curvature at a point x on the interface, m is the slope of the liquidus line on the phase diagram, and a is a constant given by where s is the interfacial free energy, TE is the equilibrium temperature, and L is the latent heat of fusion. The calculations in this paper will be made only for the case where the phase diagram is symmetric, that is, the eutectic occurs at 50 pct, the liquidi have the same magnitude slope m at the eutectic temperature, and C,, the amount of B rejected when unit volume of a freezes, see Fig. 2(a), is the same for both phases. As shown in Fig. 2(b), the composition ahead of the a phase will be rich in B, the composition ahead of the ß phase will be rich in A. The composition at the phase boundary is the eutectic composition. The difference between the local liquidus temperature and the actual tempera-

Jan 1, 1964

By J. Gross

G. H. Clevenger, Chairman of the Milling Methods Committee of the Institute, made the following introductory remarks: "Several years ago, a number of us felt that the time was ripe for a fundamental investigation of crushing and grinding. At the outset, it appeared that the first thing we needed was a yardstick whereby grinding efficiency could be measured. "The U. S. Bureau of Mines has been most generous in cooperating with the Milling Methods Committee in getting this work well under way. John Gross, who served the committee for a year as secretary, was placed in charge of the investigation and has been ably assisted by S. R. Zimmerley. "Messrs. Gross and Zimmerley will now present the Progress Report covering their work to date." PROGRESS REPORT J. Gross, Salt Lake City, Utah. -This has not been a simple problem, and when I tell you that we can give you a verbal report of what we have done during three years in five or ten minutes you will realize that we have necessarily done a great deal of work that does not appear in the final results. We have been in a virtually new field. Therefore, we have had to feel our way at each step so as to be fairly sure we were correct. The first thing that was realized in this problem was that unless we had some method of measuring what happened when we crushed an ore, we might as well quit and not go further. We realized that if we tried to measure the results of crushing or grinding by the ordinary sizing test we would not get anywhere. We could sieve down to say 200 mesh fairly accurately; we could even go one sieve size further with a little less accuracy, and then we were absolutely lost, unless we went into microscopic measurement. Even this latter method would not have been satisfactory. The question was: what were we going to measure? If we were going to measure size, we might measure one particular dimension of a particle and be off 200 per cent. or more. If we tried to measure surface, we would have something tangible; the surface of a particle, no matter how irregular, is something definite, far more definite than any linear dimension would be. Moreover, if we could measure surface, we would immediately have a method of checking the Rittinger law as to whether it was or was not correct. So the first thing that we sought was a method whereby we could measure surface on crushed particles or, we will say, on particles; it would not make any difference whether crushed or not. It then became a question of what kind of particles we were going to use in obtaining a method for surface measurement. We realized that it would be rather a com-

Jan 1, 1928

By C. Z. Serpan, L. J. Wittenberg

The density of liquid plutonium was determined, by a pycnometm&apos;c technique, from 664 to 788°C and exhibited a temperature dependence, which could be expressed as:. P= C17.63 - 1.52 x 10-"t] +0.04 g per cc where t = OC. These density values compare favorably with the values previously obtained by a technique utilizing Archimedes&apos; principle. The apparatus and method were evaluated when the densities 0.f molten tin and bismuth were measured and found to be in agreement with accepted literature values. PLUTONIUM or an alloy of plutonium in the liquid state has been proposed as a fuel for a fast-breeder type nuclear power plant.&apos; Since knowledge of the liquid density of plutonium is required for the proper design of such a system, this study was undertaken. In addition, the density and volume expansion coefficient of liquid plutonium are of interest for comparison with these same properties of the six allotropic modifications of the solid metal. Comstock and GibneyZ were first to report a value for the density of liquid plutonium. The value for only one temperature, 665"C, was calculated from data obtained by the radiography of the meniscus, Fig. 3. Recently, the density at a series of temperatures has been reported by Knight,3 who obtained his values by using a differential volumeter, and by 01-sen, Sandenaw, and Herrik, who obtained their values from measurements of the loss in weight of a tungsten bob immersed in the liquid. The density of liquid plutonium reported here was determined by a vacuum pycnometer method. In an evacuated system, the tips of calibrated tantalum pycnometers were lowered beneath the liquid sur-

Jan 1, 1962

By W. M. Baldwin, J. T. Brown

The effect of hydrogen on the ductility, c, of SAE 1020 steel at strain rates, i, from 0.05 in. per in. per rnin to 19,000 in. per in. per rnin and at temperature, T, from +150° to —320°F was determined. The ductility surface of the embrittled steel reveals two domains: one in which and the other in which The usual "explanations" of hydrogen embrittlement are in accord with the first of these domains only. THE purpose of this investigation was a fuller A characterization of this of the investigation effects of varying temperature and strain rate on the fracture strain of hydrogen-charged steel. To be sure, it is known that low and high temperatures remove the embrittlement that hydrogen confers upon steels at room temperature,1 * see Fig. la and b, and that high strain rates have a similar effect,&apos;-&apos; see Fig. 2a, b, and c. However, the general effect of these two testing conditions on the fracture ductility of hydrogen-charged steels is not known, i.e., the three-dimensional graphical representation of fracture ductility as a function of temperature and strain rate is not known—only two traverses of the graph are available. The need for such a graph is not pedantic. To demonstrate this point, Fig. 3a, b, and c shows three of many three-dimensional graphs, all possible on the basis of the two traverses at hand. The important point (as will be developed in the Discussion) is that each of them would indicate a different basic mechanism for hydrogen embrittlement. It will be noted that the four types of ductility surfaces in Fig. 3a, b, and c may be characterized as follows: Material and Procedure Tensile tests were made at various temperatures and strain rates on a commercial grade of % in. round SAE 1020 steel in both a virgin state and as charged with hydrogen. The steel was spheroidized at 1250°F for 168 hr to give the unembrittled steel the lowest possible transition temperature. The steel was charged cathodically with hydrogen as follows: The specimen was attached to a 6 in. steel wire, degreased for 5 min in trichlorethylene, rinsed with water, and fixed in a plastic top in the center of a cylindrical platinum mesh anode. The assembly was placed in a 1000 milliliter beaker containing an electrolyte of 900 milliliters of 4 pct sulphuric acid and 10 milliliters of poison (2 grams of yellow phosphorous dissolved in 40 milliliters of carbon disulphide). A current density of 1 amp per sq in. was used which developed a 4 v drop across the two electrodes. All electrolysis was carried on at room temperature. Temperatures for tensile tests were obtained by immersing the specimens in baths of water (+70° to + 150°F), mixtures of liquid nitrogen and isopen-tane (+70° to —24O°F), and boiling nitrogen (-240" to-320°F). Specimens were tested in tension at strain rates of 0.05, 10, 100, 5000, and 19,000 in. per in. per min. The 0.05 and 10 in. per in. per rnin strain rates were obtained on a 10,000 lb Riehle tensile testing machine, the 100 in. per in. per rnin rate on a hydraulic-type draw bench with a special fixture, and the 500 and 19,000 in. per in. per rnin rates on a drop hammer. The fracture ductility of hydrogen-charged steel at room temperature and normal testing strain rates (-0.05 in. per in. per min) is a function of electro-lyzing time, dropping to a value that remains constant after a critical time.&apos;* Under the conditions of • The hydrogen content of the steel continues to increase with charging time even after the ductility has leveled off to its saturated value.&apos; this research the saturated loss in ductility occurred at approximately 30 min, see Fig. 4, and a 60 min charging time was taken as standard for all subsequent tests. After charging the steel with hydrogen, the surface was covered with blisters. These have been described by Seabrook, Grant, and Carney.&apos; The original diameter of the specimen was not reduced by acid attack, even after 91 hr. Results The ductility of both uncharged and charged specimens is given as a function of strain rate in Fig. 5, and as a function of temperature at four different strain rates in Fig. 6. These results are assembled into a three-dimensional graph in Fig. 7. It is seen that the locus of the minima in the ductility curves of the charged steels divides the ductility surface into two domains. At temperatures below the minima,

Jan 1, 1955

By William Schriever

The flow of a gas-free liquid through a spherical-grain sand has been investigated by S1ichter.l By theoretical considerations involving a rather large number of approximations he arrives at the following flow-formula: V = CPd2At NLB{1 - m) where V is the volume of liquid delivered in time t through a cylindrical column of sand of length L and cross-sectional area A by a pressure-drop P when the sand grains of diameter d are packed to a porosity m and the coefficient of viscosity of the liquid is n. C and B are constants which were determined from geometrical relations; B was in reality a function of . Values of B(l — m) for various values of m were given in a table. In the same Annual Report of the U. S. Geological Survey, King reported the results of his experiments on the flow of water through porous media. He found that there was a departure of about 86 per cent. from a linear relationship between rate of flow and pressure, for a specimen of Dunnville sandstone for pressure drops not exceeding 60 cm. of mercury. The specimen was approximately 4 cm. in diameter and 5.1 cm. in length. Over the same range of pressure he found a departure of 45 per cent. for a specimen of Madison sandstone. For unconsolidated sands he found departures as great as 49 per cent. for pressure drops of 70 cm. of mercury; for pressure drops not exceeding a few inches of water he obtained a close approximation to a linear relation. He also investi-

Jan 1, 1930

The Fifth Annual National Exposition of Chemical Industries will be held in Chicago at the Coliseum and First Regiment Armory during the week of Sept. 22. It was decided to hold the exposition in Chicago, this year, for two reasons: The U. S. Army commandeered the Grand Central Palace Exposition Building in New York, immediately on the close of the last exposition and converted it into a receiving hospital, the use for which is now, happily, nearly ceased; and it was thought that the Exposition would succeed in bringing about a greater development of chemical industries in the Chicago district and the adjoining states. The Advisory Committee of the Exposition consists of: Charles H. Herty, Chairman, Editor Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry; Raymond F. Bacon, Director, Mellon Institute; L. H. Baekeland, Member Naval Consulting Board; W. D. Bancroft, President, American Electrochemical Society; Henry B. Faber, Industrial Filtration Corpn.; Ellwood Hendrick, President, The Chemists&apos; Club; Bernard C. Hesse, Chemist, General Chemical Co.; A. D. Little, President, Arthur D. Little Inc.; Wm. H. Nichols, President, American Chemical Society; R. P. Perry, Vice-president, The Barrett Co.; H. C. Parmelee, Editor Chemical &; Metallurgical Engineering, G. W. Thompson, President, American Institute of Chemical Engineers; T. B. Wagner, Vice-president, U. S. Food Products Corpn.; M. C. Whitaker, President, U. S. Industrial Chemical Co.; and Charles F. Roth and Fred W. Payne. There is also added a special Chicago committee consisting of L. V. Redman, W. D. Richardson, A. V. H. Mory, Carl S. Minor, F. W. Willard, and Wm. Hoskins; the managers, as in the past, are Charles F. Roth and Fred W. Payne.

Jan 6, 1919

By J. D. Meakin

J. D. Meakin (The Franklin Institute Laboratories)— In a recent paper Garofalo12 has shown that a number of experimental creep results can be represented by the empirical relation In this expression ? is the steady creep rate, s is the applied stress, and A is a constant at a given temperature; a and n are adjustable parameters. Garofalo has shown that Expression [6] approximates to a power function at low stresses and a simple exponential function at high stresses. Among the data used by Garofalo are the results we published for creep of copper." For these results we found that the best correlation was an exponential law with different parameters in the low-and high-stress region, respectively. That is, i = A exp qs where A and q have different values above and below a critical stress a,. In Ref. 13 are listed a variety of observations which support the proposal that different mechanisms are operative at stresses above and below a,, and it is not felt appropriate to repeat those observations here. The purpose of this note is to demonstrate that, although the representation used by Garofalo does fit the experimental data very well, this fit cannot be used to conclude that only one mechanism is rate-controlling. The argument is best made graphically and is illustrated in Fig. 9. The continuous curves 2 and 3 represent pairs of simple exponential functions which intersect at i = 10-5. The curve 2 closely resembles the copper results in that a change of slope of 2:1 occurs at i = 10-5; the two functions shown are in fact: e = 10-7 exp (1.150) and ? = 10-6&apos; exp (0.576s) For purposes of comparison, curve 3 represents two exponential functions with a change of exponent of 3:1 and curve 1 has the exponent 1.150 throughout. It is quite clear that a satisfactory straight-line fit is obtained on a Garofalo plot for all three curves. The curves represent processes which have either a single stress exponent or two ex- ponents in a ratio as high as 3:l. It must, therefore, be concluded that the ability to obtain a linear dependence between log i and log (sinh cyo) cannot be taken as evidence for a single activated process. In fact, to some extent the way the experimental points quoted by Garofalo lie about a best fit straight line on the log (sinh as) plot indicates that two processes are indeed occurring. This is seen in Figs. 7(c) and 8(c) of Ref. 12 where it is particularly evident that the experimental points deviate from the straight line in a manner similar to curves 2 and 3 of Fig. 9. It is, of course, recognized that the generally used exponential form is an approximation to the hyperbolic sine function which is not valid for exponents of less than 1.2, e.g., qs < 1.2. The only curve in Ref. 12 which is affected by this restriction is Fig. 6(b) where the deviation from a In ? vs s

Jan 1, 1964

By F. W. Schremp, J. W. Chittum, T. S. Arczynski

This paper describes a laboratory study of causes of external casing corrosion and the test work that led to the use of oxygen scavengers to prevent this attack. External casing failures are classified as water-line, casing-casing, collar and body failures. A corrosion mechanism based on principles of differential oxygen availability is developed that is consistent with facts known about each kind of failure. The field use of oxygen scavengers is depicted as a direct result of the laboratory study. A part of the paper is devoted to reporting on the field use of hydra-zine to control external casing corrosion. Results of field measurements made over a period of several years are presented as evidence of the efectiveness of the hydrazine treatment. The first conclusion reached is that the use of hydrazine materially reduces the cathodic protection requirements for treated wells. This result is interpreted to mean that a reduction is taking place in the amount of corrosion on the casing. Results indicate also that hydrazine shows its greatest usefulness within the first 12 to 18 months after a well is completed when pitting corrosion is likely to be most active. INTRODUCTION According to surveys sponsored by the National Association of Corrosion Engineers,&apos; the cost of repairing casing leaks caused by external corrosion may exceed $4 million per year. In addition, well damage and lost production resulting from casing leaks probably costs the petroleum industry an additional $5 to $6 million per year. Concern about the cost of external casing corrosion led to an extensive laboratory study of factors causing this external corrosion and to the development of a new approach to its prevention. This paper presents a discussion of various causes of external casing corrosion, details of laboratory studies and the results of the field use of an oxygen scavenger in well cementing fluids to prevent the external corrosion of oil-string casing. Measurements on test wells over a period of several years show that cathodic-protection current requirements are greatly reduced when hydrazine is used in cementing mud. Reduction of current requirements can be interpreted to mean that removal of oxygen by hydrazine has greatly suppressed corrosion cells on the external surface of the casing and thereby, has reduced corrosion. To date, hydrazine has been used by the Standard Oil Co. of California in more than 200 well completions. KINDS OF CASING FAILURES A survey of a large number of casing leaks disclosed four types of external casing failures — water-line, casing-casing, collar and body failures. These types are identified largely by their location on the casing. Water-line failures are found just below the surface of water or mud in the casing annulus. Casing-casing failures occur on the oil string just below the shoe of the surface string. Collar failures are found in the threaded ends of casing joints where they are screwed into casing collars. Body failures may occur at any point on the body of a casing joint. Ex- amples of each kind of failure have some of the general characteristics that are shown in Fig. 1. Water-line failures usually result in the circumferential severance of an oil-string casing. The corrosive action causing a water-line failure usually is sharply defined and is limited to a short length of the casing. Casing-casing failures usually are accompanied by pitting corrosion distributed around the oil-string casing for distances up to 100-ft below the shoe of the surface string. Casing-casing failures may also sever the casing. Collar failures seem to start on the first thread at the bottom of recesses between collar and casing joint. Corrosion proceeds across the threads by what appears to be a normal pitting mechanism. Both casing and collar are severely attacked. Body failures are the result of highly localized pitting at any point on a casing wall. Besides the pit that perforates a casing, a large number of other pits usually are found along one side of the casing joint. The pits occasionally are filled with corrosion products consisting largely of oxides and sulfides.&apos; Frequently, the mill scale is largely intact on the rest of the casing. Examination of a casing failure does not always reveal the cause of the failure. Frequently, the necessary details are destroyed when the failure occurs. For example, formation water flowing through a perforation at high velocity may enlarge the hole and destroy any remaining evidence of the cause of the failure. One way to obtain undistorted information about a failure is to study the nature of other pits on the casing in the vicinity of the failure. A study of such pits frequently suggests that they are characteristic of an attack resulting from the differential availability of molecular oxygen.

By H. C. Weed

THE Inspiration Consolidated Copper Co., located in the Globe-Miami district at Inspiration, Ariz., became a producer of copper in 1915. From 1915 until 1948, 116,278,000 tons of ore were produced from underground workings by the block-caving system of mining. In April 1948, open-pit ore production from portions of the ore body was started and earlier plans for block-caving in these areas were abandoned. The change was due to economic conditions.

Jan 8, 1950