A ferrous chloride-oxygen leach process for nickel-copper sulphide concentrations

This paper describes a ferrous chloride-oxygen leach process for recovery of nickel and copper values from sulphide concentrates available in India. The sulphide concentrates aareleached with a stirred solution of ferrous chloride in a glass-lined reactor operated at various temperatures and oxygen pressures. In this single step process, copper and nickel are converted into their water soluble chloride forms, whereas iron is rejected as hydrated iron oxide with simultaneous generation of sulphur in the non-polluting elemental form. The influence of various parameters such as (i) amount of ferrous chloride (60–100% stoichiometric), (ii) oxygen pressure (0.308–0.515 MPa), (iii) leaching temperature (90–120°C) and (iv) duration of leaching (2–10 h) on the leaching process has been examined. It has been possible to recover 94–99% nickel and 98% copper with low iron contamination by using optinum conditions, such as a stoichiometric amount of ferrous chloride, a temperature of 110°C, an oxygen pressure of 0.377 MPa and a duration of 8 h.     

The thermal control system

This paper presents the design, analysis and performance of the thermal control system ofAryabhata. A passive thermal control system, using flat absorber-AK-512 black paint for the outer surface of the satellite and a combination of solar reflector-AK-512 white paint and mechanical polishing for the inner surfaces, was employed to maintain the temperature of all the electronics subsystems onboard the satellite within the specified limits of 0°C and 40°C during the operational life of the satellite. The in-flight temperature data obtained from sixteen temperature sensors onboard the satellite was compared with the theoretically predicted temperature values and the agreement was good for all electronic subsystems housed within the framework of the satellite. The observed deviations in temperature for the tape recorder, proportional counter package and gas bottles of the spin-up system are attributed to the assumptions made for the mathematical model. It has been found that by improving these approximations, the deviations could be reduced to negligible values.     

On a numerical solution of the plastic buckling problem of structures

An automated digital computer procedure is presented for the accurate and efficient solution of the plastic buckling problem of structures. This is achieved by a Sturm sequence method employing a bisection strategy, which eliminates the need for having to solve the buckling eigenvalue problem at each incremental (decremental) loading stage that is associated with the usual solution techniques. The plastic bucking mode shape is determined by a simple inverse iteration process, once the buckling load has been established. Numerical results are presented for plate problems with various edge conditions. The resulting computer program written in FORTRAN for the JPL UNIVAC 1108 machine proves to be most economical in comparison with other existing methods of such analysis.     

A test rig for testing radial diffusers

A simple test rig for investigating the performance of vaneless diffusers with diverging walls for centrifugal compressors has been designed, fabricated and satisfactorily tested. The test rig was designed to give values of area ratio from 1·5 to 6 for an included angle of 10°. A uniform flow at the entry of the diffuser had been achieved by the use of a centre body and suction on both the walls. The swirl was zero in all the tests.A maximum Reynolds' number of 2·8 × 10⁵ can be obtained during the tests. Experimental values of the coefficients for losses, the pressure recovery and efficiency were obtained from the measurements of static and stagnation pressures.     

Probable simultaneous response by the response spectrum method of analysis

A new method is proposed in which the response in several modes of vibration under the three components of earthquake is replaced by the response in a small number of equivalent modes.     

A two (multicomponent) unit parallel system with standby and common cause failure

This paper investigates the mathematical model of a system composed of two non-identical active parallel units and one cold standby. A unit has N components, each having a constant failure and repair rate. These vary from component to component. Several reliability characteristics of interest to system designers as well as operations managers have been computed. Results obtained earlier are verified as particular cases.     

Kinetics and mechanisms of pore growth in MgO

Isothermal pore growth occurs in MgO when polycrystalline compacts are annealed in air for long periods of time at temperatures between 1450 and 1650°C. Fractographic examination of the microstructures demonstrates that the pores are trapped along the grain boundaries and at the intersections. The growth occurs as a result of pore dragging by grain boundary in combination with transport of atoms by surface diffusion. The contribution from lattice diffusion and vapour transport becomes increasingly important as the temperature is raised. Finally, as the pores grow in size, they inhibit the normal grain growth in MgO.     

Second IFAC round table on fuzzy automata and decision processes

This report summarizes the main features of the round table discussion on Fuzzy Automata and Decision Processes which took place during the 6th triennial IFAC World Congress at MIT in Boston in the late Summer of 1975. The meeting was organised by Professor M. M. Gupta following the resounding success of an earlier round table which he had organised on the same topic and reported in Automatica [22].It was one of the more popular round table sessions held during the Congress and was attended by nearly 50 people. Contributions were offered by 14 authors. Those of whom were able to attend the session brought with them copies of full papers which were distributed to all participants. Because of the large number of contributions each author was asked to give only a brief account of his work leaving Professor Zadeh to make a larger introductory presentation. Some very interesting points were made during the discussion that followed the formal presentation.This report gives a shortened account of what was said at the session. The list including addresses of all the authors present and most of the other participants is given in Section 5. The list of references at the end of this report has been formed by putting together all the key references in the full length papers submitted by the authors.     

On dynamic behavior of stochastic systems with discontinuities in parameters

In this paper an analysis and stochastic characterization of optimally controlled systems in the presence of environmental disturbances, additive input and observation noise, and subject to discontinuous-type parameter uncertainties is considered. As an illustrative example, the control of a spinning spacecraft is considered and some quantitative aspects of the stochastic behavior of the control and estimation signals following discontinuities in the controlled spacecraft parameters are discussed.     

Stability of magnetogasdynamic shear flow

Summary Some general results on the stability of a compressible parallel shear flow permeated by an aligned magnetic field are derived. It is shown that the complex wave speed of an unstable wave lies in a semi-circle in the upper half plane with the range of the shear flow as diameter. Further both compressibility and magnetic field are found to be stabilizing. It is also shown that in a flow near a wall, two acoustic waves carry energy away from the wall. A semi-circle theorem for a non-planar compressible shear flow is also deduced.

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Stabilität magnetogasdynamischer Scherströmungen

Zusammenfassung Einige allgemeine Aussagen über die Stabilität einer kompressiblen, parallelen Scherströmung in einem Magnetfeld werden hergeleitet. Die komplexe Wellengeschwindigkeit der instabilen Welle liegt in einem Halbkreis in der oberen Halbebene, wobei der Radius durch die Breite der Scherströmung gegeben ist. Sowohl die Kompressibilität, wie das Magnetfeld üben einen stabilisierenden Einfluß aus. Was die Strömung in unmittelbarer Wandnähe angeht, so tragen zwei akustische Wellen Energie von der Wand fort. Abschließend wird ein Halbkreistheorem für nicht ebene kompressible Scherströmungen hergeleitet.