Effect of electrochemical modification of titanium hydride fraction on oxygen content in surface and deep layers

The paper presents a study of the microstructure and oxygen concentration in the surface and deep layers of fractions of unmodified titanium hydride and titanium hydride modified by electrodeposited layers of Ti and Cu at temperatures of 300-900 ° C. The composition of the oxide layer and the concentration of titanium and oxygen atoms are estimated. It is shown that an increase in the thickness and compaction of the oxide layer with increasing temperature prevents the penetration of oxygen into the deep layers of the unmodified fraction of titanium hydride. Modification of titanium hydride by electrochemical deposition of metallic titanium at a temperature of 700 °C reduces the oxygen concentration in titanium hydride at a layer depth of 50 μm from 35 wt% to 12.5 wt%. Electrodeposition of coatings based on titanium and copper at 700 °C reduces the oxygen concentration to 9.2 wt%, which may be due to the protective mechanism of the formed copper titanate layer. At 900 °C, in the modification layer based on titanium and copper, due to the eutectoid transformation of the β-phase of titanium, the process of contact melting occurs and a multiphase zone is formed. The oxygen concentration at a layer depth of 50 μm is no more than 12.4 wt%.

Device for fusion drilling with simultaneous or follow-up reaming of wells in ice

The paper deals with a new opening technology for subglacial reservoirs, which ensures environmentally friendly geological exploration. The technology is based on the results of the first openings of the subglacial Lake Vostok in Antarctica (February 2012 and January 2015). The primary goal of further studies of the subglacial Lake Vostok is to take clean samples of lake water and bottom sediments, which requires direct penetration into the lake. There is a number of conditions to be met in order to conduct further studies of the lake using a clean access well at the Vostok drilling complex. The article summarizes the main results including technological and engineering solutions protected by the patent of the Russian Federation. A detailed consideration is given to a new device for fusion drilling with simultaneous reaming of an ice hole. This device combines two technological processes: drilling due to contact melting, and an increase in the diameter of the well due to the creation of a vortex flow of a continuously heated coolant in the bottomhole zone. The thermal method of ice breaking ensures the ecological cleanliness when opening subglacial reservoirs and is a priority method that favorably differs from the existing ones. The device was named a “thermal drill reamer” (TDR). During the seasonal work of the 64th Russian Antarctic Expedition bench tests of the TDR 132/400 were carried out, the results of which confirmed that the device is capable to ensure 132 mm drilling with simultaneous reaming up to 400 mm.

Modeling of hot-point drilling in ice

Hot-point drills have been widely used for drilling boreholes in glaciers, ice caps and ice sheets. A hot-point drill melts ice through the thermal head at its bottom end. Penetration occurs through a close-contact melting (CCM) process, in which the ice is melted, and the meltwater is squeezed out by the exerted force applied on the thermal head. During the drilling, a thin water film is formed to separate the thermal head from the surrounding ice. For the hot-point drill, the rate of penetration (ROP) is influenced by several variables, such as thermal head shape, buoyancy corrected force (BCF), thermal head power (or temperature) and ice temperature. In this study, we developed a model to describe the CCM process, where a constant power or temperature on the working surface of a thermal head is assumed. The model was developed using COMSOL Multiphysics 5.3a software to evaluate the effects of different variables on the CCM process. It was discovered that the effect of thermal head shape and the cone angle of conical thermal head on ROP is less significant, whereas the increase in the BCF and the power (or temperature) of the thermal head can continuously enhance the ROP.

Crystal transfer from magma to wallrock during syntectonic granite emplacement

Field, microstructural and mineral compositional evidence from the Mesoproterozoic K-feldspar megacrystic Red Granite at Oncócua Platform (southwestern Angola) is consistent with crystal transfer from magma to wallrock during syntectonic intrusion. K-feldspar megacrystic Red Granite intruded during folding of wallrock tonalite. Enclaves of the wallrock tonalite are elongated parallel to Red Granite intrusive contacts, a K-feldspar megacryst and hornblende defined magmatic foliation, and a gneissosity in the Red Granite. Stromatic layering present in the tonalite is crosscut by the Red Granite intrusive contacts or is isoclinally folded with fold axial planes and hinges filled with Red Granite. K-feldspar megacryst clusters and curved grain boundaries (i.e., contact melting), as well as thin Red Granite fold axial planar sheets containing K-feldspar megacrysts that are typically wider than the sheets themselves, are all consistent with melt loss and crystal accumulation during solidification. The wallrock tonalite also hosts K-feldspar megacrysts and hornblende phenocrysts that are interpreted to be the same population to those in Red Granite, on the basis of their size, shape, nature of inclusions, compositions, and compositional zoning. We propose that these crystals were transferred from the intrusive Red Granite magma to the wallrock tonalite via magmatic conduits that subsequently collapsed due to external stresses, leaving behind the larger crystals. The pristine preservation of intrusive relations at Oncócua Platform may mean that crystal transfer from magma to wallrock is more common in incrementally assembled granitoid plutons than previously thought.Supplementary material: [Mineral chemical data] available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5448664

Numerical Investigation on the Evolution of Thin Liquid Layer and Dynamic Behavior of an Electro-Thermal Drilling Probe during Close-Contact Heat Transfer

This study investigates the transient behavior of an electro-thermal drilling probe (ETDP) during a close-contact melting process within a glacier. In particular, the present work analyzes the effect of the tip temperature on the formation of molten thin liquid films and the subsequent rate of penetration (ROP) through numerical simulation. We used the commercial code of ANSYS Fluent (v.17.2) to solve the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equation, together with an energy equation considering the solidification and melting model. The ROP of the drilling probe is determined based on the energy balance between the heating power and melting rate of ice. As the results, the ETDP penetrates the ice through a close-contact melting process. The molten liquid layer with less than 1 mm of thickness forms near the heated probe tip. In addition, the ROP increases with the heated temperature of the probe tip.

Research of Heat Resistance and Thermophysical Properties of the Diffusion Zone Formed by Annealing by Contact Melting Mode of the Layered Metal-Intermetallic Composite of the Cu-Al System

The results of studying the effect of isothermal annealing on structural, phase transformations, and thermal diffusivity in the diffusion zone of a Cu-Al layered metal-intermetallic composite (LMIC), obtained using technology including explosion welding, pressure treatment and heat treatment, are presented. It was found that, at 530 °C (the highest temperature, excluding the formation of a liquid phase in this system) with a holding time of up to 1000 h, there are no structural phase transformations in the Al (Cu)/CuAl2 metal-intermetallic composition, and a slight increase in its mass is associated with the formation of a thin dense protective oxide film on the surface. The thermal diffusivity of Cu-Al LMIC, obtained after removal of copper residues from the surface of the diffusion zone, is 50–60 W/m×K, which is significantly lower than that of copper (410 W/m×K) and aluminum (220 W/m×K).

THE ROLE OF MASS-TRANSFER IN THE MATERIALS SURFACE LAYER STRUCTURING UNDER EXTREME HEATING

Possible causes of mass transfer acceleration of carbon atoms and alloying elements in the surface layers of steels and alloys under extreme heating, under pulsing laser irradiation in particular, are considered. The research shows that the anomaly accelerated mass transfer, including diffusion in particular, in steels and alloys under fast laser heating has a cooperative character and is a result of a simultaneous action of several processes of different physics. It is proved that the carbon atoms mass transfer parameters and alloying elements depend on the scale and the level of emerging tension, relaxation of which goes along with a local plastic deformation, and occurrence of increased number of linear defects in crystal structure. Experimental and theoretical studies have found that with the temperature of the laser heating lowered along the depth of the irradiated areas the mechanism of mass transfer will change as follows: atoms move in the fused spot area under the influence of Marangoni effect; a contact melting and liquid-phase diffusion occur at the boundaries with the solid matrix; Soret diffusion under the action of local plastic deformation also occur; atoms move along the irradiated zone in an atoms "drift" mechanism within the area of moving dislocations.