Comparative stability analyses of traditional and selective room-and-pillar mining techniques for sub-horizontal tungsten veins

The stability and productivity concerning a modification on the traditional room and pillar for a new selective technique at the Portuguese Panasqueira Mine have been described. The traditional room-and-pillar stoping uses 5.0-m wide rooms with 3.0 m×3.0 m pillars, while the selective room-and-pillar mining technique consists in stoping with rooms of 4.0 m wide and pillars of 4 m×4 m with a subsequent selective cutting of the quartz veins at the mid pillar of approximately 0.5 m high, to obtain a pillar section with an area of 3.0 m×3.0 m. The stability and productivity analyses indicate that the selective technique obtains smaller average pillar safety factor, more rock mass displacement, more extraction and selectivity ratios, and ore grade improvement, compared with the traditional technique. These results show that the selective technique is also more convenient. This proposed selective room-and-pillar mining technique is applicable to any sub-horizontal narrow quartz veins with wolfram, gold, etc. such as the famous La Rinconada gold mine in the Peruvian Andes.     

Existence of multiple solutions for the laminar flow in a porous channel with suction at both slowly expanding and contracting walls

The asymptotic behavior of solutions of a similarity equation for the laminar flow in a porous channel with suction at both expanding and contracting walls has been obtained by using a singular perturbation method. However, in the matching process, this solution neglects exponentially small terms. To take into account these exponentially small terms, a method involving the inclusion of exponentially small terms in a perturbation series was used to find two of the solutions analytically. The series involving the exponentially small terms and expansion ratio predicts dual solutions. Furthermore, the result indicates that the expansion ratio has much important influence on the solutions.     

The large sample properties of the solutions of general estimating equations

This paper develops the large sample properties of the solutions of the general estimating equations which are unbiased or asymptotically unbiased or with nuisance parameters for correlated data.The authors do not make the assumption that the estimating equations come from some objective function when we establish the large sample properties of the solutions.So these results extend the work of Newey and McFadden(1994) and are more widely applicable.Furthermore,we provide some examples to justify the importance of our work.     

Finding the topology of implicitly defined two algebraic plane curves

An algorithm is given for computing in a very efficient way the topology of two real algebraic plane curves defined implicitly.The authors preform a symbolic pre-processing that allows us later to execute all numerical computations in an accurate way.     

Kinetics and mechanism of titanium hydride powder and aluminum melt reaction

Based on the measurement of the released hydrogen gas pressure (P_H2), the reaction kinetics between TiH₂ powder and pure aluminum melt was studied at various temperatures. After cooling the samples, the interface of TiH₂ powder and aluminum melt was studied. The results show that the 2 H P_H2-time curves have three regions; in the first and second regions, the rate of reaction conforms zero and one order, respectively; in the third region, the hydrogen gas pressure remains constant and the rate of reaction reaches zero. The main factors that control the rate of reaction in the first and second regions are the penetration of hydrogen atoms in the titanium lattice and the chemical reaction between molten aluminum and titanium, respectively. According to the main factors that control the rate of reaction, three temperature ranges are considered for the reaction mechanism:(a) 700-750℃, (b) 750-800℃, and (c) 800-1000℃. In the first temperature range, the reaction is mostly under the control of chemical reaction; at the temperature range of 750 to 800℃, the reaction is controlled by the diffusion and chemical reaction; at the third temperature range (800-1000℃), the dominant controlling mechanism is diffusion.     

Mechanical properties of Mn-doped ZnO nanowires studied by first-principles calculations

First-principles calculations were performed to investigate the mechanical properties of ZnO nanowires and to study the doping and size effects. A series of strains were applied to ZnO nanowires in the axial direction and the elastic moduli of ZnO nanowires were obtained from the energy versus strain curves. Pure and Mn-doped ZnO nanowires with three different diameters (1.14, 1.43, and 1.74 nm) were studied. It is found that the elastic moduli of the ZnO nanowires are 146.5, 146.6, and 143.9 GPa, respectively, which are slightly larger than that of the bulk (140.1 GPa), and they increase as the diameter decreases. The elastic moduli of the Mn-doped ZnO nanowires are 137.6, 141.8, and 141.0 GPa, which are slightly lower than those of the undoped ones by 6.1%, 3.3%, and 2.0%, respectively. The mechanisms of doping and size effect were discussed in terms of chemical bonding and geometry considerations.     

Design and calculation of low infrared transmittance and low emissivity coatings for heat radiative applications

The infrared transmittance and emissivity of heat-insulating coatings pigmented with various structural particles were studied using Kubelka-Munk theory and Mie theory. The primary design purpose was to obtain the low transmittance and low emissivity coatings to reduce the heat transfer by thermal radiation for high-temperature applications. In the case of silica coating layers constituted with various structural titania particles (solid, hollow, and core-shell spherical), the dependence of transmittance and emissivity of the coating layer on the particle structure and the layer thickness was investigated and optimized. The results indicate that the coating pigmented with core-shell titania particles exhibits a lower infrared transmittance and a lower emissivity value than that with other structural particles and is suitable to radiative heat-insulating applications.     

Research of {0001} crystal orientation for magnesium alloys solidified in a fashion of cellular crystals

The magnesium alloy grew in a fashion of cellular crystals during the process of unidirectional solidification, and the {0001} crystal face orientation in the cast ingot of the magnesium alloy was studied. The theoretical model and methodology were set up, and a corresponding experiment was carried out to verify the theoretical analysis results. The experimental results indicate that the {0001} crystal face of magnesium crystals parallels to the width direction for the thin-plate cast ingot when the magnesium grows in a manner of cellular crystals. The separation angle between the {0001} crystal face of magnesium crystals and the vertical axis line of the cast ingot is about 62° for the circular column cast ingot, which distributes in cone-type. The theoretical analysis results are basically in agreement with the experimental ones of previous literatures and this paper.     

Effects of crystallization on corrosion behaviours of a Ni-based bulk metallic glass

The effects of microstructure change on the corrosion behaviours of Ni₅₅Nb₂₀Ti₁₀Zr₈Co₇ bulk glass-forming alloy were investigated in 1 mol/L HCl and 0.5 mol/L H₂SO₄ solutions. Different microstructures of the Ni-based alloy were achieved by annealing the bulk glassy rod prepared by copper mould casting. The microstructure, grain size, grain distribution, and phase composition were characterized. Electrochemical behaviours of the Ni-based alloy were revealed by static immersion and anodic potentiodynamic polarization tests. It is indicated that the corrosion behaviours of the Ni-based bulk glass-forming alloy are related to its microstructures, while the fully crystallized alloy exhibits a relatively lower corrosion resistance than those of the amorphous states.     

Effect of interface morphology on the mechanical properties of titanium clad steel plates

Interface morphology has important influence on the bond quality of titanium clad steel plates. The mechanical properties of titanium clad steel plates with wavy and straight interfaces were investigated by tensile-shear tests and bending tests. The interface morphology of the plates was examined by optical microscopy (OM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The experimental results show that the shear strength of a wavy interface is higher than that of a straight interface. A wavy interface is the guarantee for obtaining high shear strength to provide a greater shear resistance. During the macrobending process, cracks appear in the swirl of the wave tip and ferrotitanium intermetallics. For in-situ observing the bending process by SEM, the wave tip of a wavy interface and the massive ferrotitanium intermetallics of a straight interface are places where cracks initiate and propagate. The results are the same as those observed in the macrobending process. Because of high hardness, the wave tip and the massive ferrotitanium intermetallics are hard in terms of compatible deformation.