Recent developments and notes

Recent Developments and Notes The Review

Gas Council of Organization

The BICERA variable-ratio piston engines. lowers the ratio as the load is raised, and raises it as the load is reduced. The piston has two main parts, an outer shell and an inner carrier. The carrier, which is linked to the crank by the connecting rod and gudgeon pin, always moves between the same upper and lower limits, but the shell can slide on the carrier to adopt a higher or lower position relative to the gudgeon pin, thus varying the compression ratio. Together these two parts enclose two chambers, an upper chamber under the piston crown and an annular lower chamber at the bottom of the skirt. Oil from the lubricating system reaches the carrier via the connecting rod and is fed to the two chambers through non-return valves. When the engine is running, the inertia of the oil produces a pumping action keeping both chambers supplied with oil. In tests a turbocharged diesel engine fitted with these pistons has been taken to 315 lb/in2 brake mean effective pressure, which is 160 per cent above the commercial full load rating of the same engine with normal pistons, i.e. 121 lb/in2 b.m.e.p. Limited tests on a petrol engine pointed to possible large savings in running costs by adopting variable ratio. With the piston set to keep the ratio just below the detonating point at all loads, a fuel saving of 20.5 per cent at half load was achieved.

THE Gas

Council has recently undertaken a review of the organization of research and development on the utilization side at both Watson House and at the Council’s Midlands Research Station at Solihull. The Council has decided that the work on industrial gas research, at present divided between the Midlands Research Station and Watson House, be concentrated at Solihull. The Midlands Research Station has excellent facilities and room for expansion, and is thus strongly placed, as the future centre of industrial gas research, to deal with its rapidly growing commitments. To take change of this work, Dr W. A. SIMMONDS has recently been appointed Director of Industrial Gas Research. He was for several years with the former Gas Research Board, as head of a team working on gas utilization and transferred to the staff of the Council’s Midlands Research Station on its opening. Watson House will then be free to concentrate on problems on the domestic gas utilization side as well as the applications of gas in the growing commercial field. The most effective use will thus be made of the improved accommodation facilities available in the new building at Peterborough Road. The work at Watson House will be reorganized functionally into three divisions, Research, Approval Testing and Development, each ucd_er its own Manager. The work at present carried out by the Watson House Centre will be continued as the information service of Watson House.

Avoiding Gas Accidents in Moscow Homes Moscow is supplied with about 35 x lo6 m3 of gas a day and the great majority of its homes use gas for cooking. Special attention is given to ensuring against accidents. All household gas equipment is inspected monthly free of charge, and a considerable amount of publicity is given to safety measures in the home. An automatic device, the size of a match box, has been developed for insertion in a flue to cut off the gas supply if carbon monoxide reaches

Piston to Adjust Engine Compression Ratio An ingenious design of piston that adjusts the compression ratio of an engine to suit the load has been developed by the British Internal Combustion Engine Research Association, mainly for diesel engines to enable them to carry very high loads. But it can also be fitted to petrol 292

September

1963

Recent

developments

concentration in the atmosphere. These devices are now being installed free of charge in all Moscow flats. A special ‘anti-gas’ service is one of the four emergency services operating in the city. On receiving an emergency telephone call a gas repair squad is sent out at once, as well as an ambulance with full equipment. In extreme cases operations for heart massage can be done in the ambulance and special injections can be given [Soviet Information Service, Bulletin No. 621, 15 March 19631. a certain

Thermophysical Properties Research In 1956 plans were made at Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana, for the establishment of a permanent centre for advancement of knowledge of the thermal properties of matter. With financial support from a number of industrial and government organizations, the Thermophysical Properties Research Center (TPRC) was established in January 1957. An account of the major achievements of the Center and of current important developments has recently been given in a paper by the Director, Y.S. TOULOUKIAN,who is also Professor of Mechanical Engineering in the University [In&nut. J. Heat Mass Transfer, 1963, 6, 3011. The pioneering activities of TPRC in scientific are becoming increasingly documentation known through the publication in December 1960 of Volume I of the Retrieval Guide to ThermoPhysical Properties Research Literature. One of the main aims of this guide is to attain the maximum possible coverage of relevant information, and an important segment of the information reported may never appear in abstracting journals. Volume II, due to be published early in 1963, will bring the total coverage of this work to 20 000 research papers published in over 2 420 journals. TPRC’s experimental programme is largely determined by the above project and by its Critical Tables Project. In November last, TPRC was reorganized and it was established as a new unit of the Schools of Engineering in the University. It has become an interdisciplinary institution with a staff ‘of chemists, physicists, chemical engineers and mechanical engineers. In the present summer it will be relocated

and notes

293

in a new building erected in McClure Park, the University’s industrial research park. The new structure will cost approximately $500 000. Petrol Engine Exhaust In a paper by J. S. CLARKE, Chief Engineer, and J. P. SOLTAU, Research Engineer, Joseph Lucas Ltd, presented to a meeting of the Automobile Division of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, in April, an account was given of the development and test data of the Lucas direct flame afterburner, designed to reduce air pollution from petrol engine exhausts. A modification of the California emission test cycle was used as the test standard. U.S.A. data are inapplicable when designing exhaust devices for European countries, as carbon monoxide emissions differ considerably in the two continents, values being from 1.5 to 4 per cent for American automobiles and from 35 to 5.5 per cent for European vehicles. A satisfactory unit has been produced and gives good performance on the road. The reduction in pollution was very satisfactory and values for the Californian cold test procedure were 1.5 per cent of carbon monoxide and 100 p.p.m. of hydrocarbons. Effect of Dewpoint in Diesel Engines P. MIJLLER has published a comprehensive monograph on dewpoint temperatures in diesel engines, in relation to sulphur present in the fuel and the deposits and effects in the cylinder due thereto [Forschungsh. Ver. dtsch. Ing. 486, 56 pp, 19611. There is discussion of all the basic aspects of the subject and the numerous results, obtained at a fixed engine speed, are well documented with analytical data. It is concluded that if the cylinder walls are kept above the H,O-H,SO, condensation temperature, then corrosion can be eliminated. It is not difficult to avoid water condensation, but condensation of H,O-H,SO, is difficult to avoid. With one per cent sulphur content of the fuel, the maximum dewpoint temperature is 50°C higher than for water in the fuel. Raising the engine temperature is only effective if at the same time all the engine parts are brought thereby above the H,O dewpoint. Operation of the H,O-H,SO, dewpoint to near the H,O dew-

Vol. 7

W. A. Kirkby

294

point can increase the corrosive effects of the sulphuric acid. For all conditions, it appears to be helpful to combat corrosion by means of additives in the lubricating oil [AppZ. Mech. Rev. 1963, 16, 316; G. SONNEMANN, U.S.A.]. North Rhine-Westphalia

Scientific Publications des Lades Nordwhich im Echo der Fachpresse

In Die Forschungsberichte rhein-Westfalen

has recently been published by the authority of Dr FRANZ MEYERS, Ministerprlsident (Westdeutscher Verlag; Koln und Opladen; 1962, 392 pp) there is a list, summaries and reviews of over a thousand reports of scientific and technical researches carried out since 1952 in the universities, technical colleges and other institutions in this province of Western Germany. These reviews are taken from 240 different periodicals. There is given a German translation of each review which is not originally in this language. Copies of the individual reports are obtainable at the prices indicated. National Society for Clean Air New President

Dr A. PARKER, C.B.E., is to be the new President of the National Society for Clean Air. His appointments have included those of Director of the Fuel Research Station of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and Chairman of the Expert Committee on Air Pollution of the World Health Organization in Geneva. At present Dr PARKER is Honorary Secretary of the British National Committee of the World Power Conference and Chairman of the Consultative Panel on World Energy Resources of the International Executive Council of the Committee. Liquid Hydrogen

about -250°C and - 185”C, respectively, are heated and injected into the cylinder. Initially ignition is effected by means of a palladium or platinum catalyst suitably placed in the cylinder Exhaust gas passing through a coiled head. tube heat exchanger, heats the feed hydrogen. One version of this engine would require about 1300 lb total weight of hydrogen and oxygen to sustain a power level of 2 kW for two weeks, but the fuel required may be much lower in future versions [Chem. Engng, May 1963, 941. Furnace New I&a-red An infra-red furnace, of unit construction, capable of heating up to 1250°C has been designed by the British Iron and Steel Research Association. It has clean-cut and compact lines, high efficiency, and no waste of heat. The furnace is built from standardized parabolic reflector units each of which has a tungsten heater. The reflectors, constructed from aluminium extrusions which give the correct parabolic shape to form parallel beams of infra-red radiation, are sealed in by a quartz window to prevent deterioration. Water passages to permit cooling are built into the extrusions and these can be connected to common inlet and outlet manifolds as required. Unit construction makes it easy to assemble the furnace to suit any particular job. The internal diameter can be increased or decreased by the addition or subtraction of standard units. The length of the furnace is made up of units placed longitudinally, and furnaces of any size can be built with a capital cost lower than that It is parof furnaces of conventional design. ticularly suitable for batch processes because of its small thermal mass and instant power availability.

for I.C.E.

Miniature internal combustion engines using liquid hydrogen to provide power in space vehicles, are being developed under the aegis of the U.S. Air Force and the National AeroA onenautics and Space Administration. cylinder, two-cycle engine has been built, with conventional, but miniature, piston, camshaft, flywheel and gears. The bore and stroke are each 15 in. Hydrogen and oxygen, stored as liquids at

Experimental

Ignition of Dusts work has been described

by P. C. and S. E. TOWNSHEND on the determination of the minimum surface temperature for the ignition of combustible dust layers on hot surfaces [&it. J. appZ. Phys. 1962, 13, 1051. Most of the work was done with layers of beech sawdust, screened in various size ranges, and packed to varying density levels. The depth of the layer appears to be the most important BOWES

September 1963

Recent

developments and notes

factor affecting the minimum temperature of the hot surface which would produce ignition. Values of this temperature ranged from 270°C for 2.5 cm layers, to 37O”C, for 0.3 cm layers, with beech sawdust. Ignition was detected by means of a thermocouple located inside the dust deposit and just below its centre plane. The hot surface was a horizontal plane circular plate 19 cm diameter and 0.65 cm thick, heated electrically on the underside. By application of the theories of thermal ignition by FrankKamenetsky and Semenov, with the assumption of first-order reaction in the slab which obeys the Arrhenius equation, correlations were obtained which allow reasonably accurate extrapolation of the data to thick layers, and which show reasonable agreement with other tests conducted at uniform ambient temperature in Mech. Rev. 1963, 16, 232; J. T. ovens [A# AGNEW]. Electric Discharges during Aircraft Fuelling Several investigations in recent years on the potential hazards due to electrostatic charging in the fuelling of aircraft have yielded extensive data on the accumulation of charge and generation of potential gradients, for a wide range of conditions. Amongst other important results, it appears that the electric conductivity of a fuel is probably the most important physical quantity that controls the accumulation of electric charge during the filling of a tank. Recently large-scale work by C. BRUINZEEL, Koninklijke / Shell - Laboratorium, Amsterdam, Shell Internationale Research, Maatschappij N.V., has been carried out to study the nature of discharges between the grounded metal structure of a simulated aircraft tank and a charged fuel, with a view to being able to predict approximately the lower limit of fuel conductivity required to prevent a potentially dangerous accumulation of charge in such tanks u. Inst. Petrol. 1963, 49, 1251. The flow of fuel into the tank was turbulent. To provide direct evidence of ignition hazards due to discharges, some experiments were made with flammable vapour present in the tank. The most critical periods for electrical discharges appear to be the first stage of the fuelling operation and the stage when a tank is

295

nearly full. The incendiary nature of sparks obtained was demonstrated in certain tests. Sparking was found to be more difficult to suppress in the first stage of the filling operation. The results indicate that with present-day fuel handling facilities and under severe fuelling conditions a fuel conductivity of at least 50 picomho/m is required to prevent all sparking hazards. The same conclusion is to be found in a paper published about a year ago by E. F. WINTER and referred to in these columns [J. Roy. aero. Sot. 1962, 66, 429; see also Combustion G Flame, 1962, 6, 35Y]. The work by this latter investigator was carried out at the Shell Group Thornton Research Centre, Chester. B.I.S.R.A. Combustion Research The British Iron and Steel Research Association Anntial Report for 1962 was issued in May last. Several research projects in combustion and heat transfer may be noted. At the University of Sheffield an investigation, sponsored by the B.I.S.R.A., is on heat transfer in continuous billet reheating furnaces. Using numerical and analogue techniques, optimum heating rates are being determined for certain provisions. It will then be possible to predict the suitable flame shape and emissivity pattern to obtain these optimum heating rates in a furnace of known dimensions. To solve the problem of the low proportion of cold scrap that can be melted in oxygen steelmaking processes, an oxy-oil burner has been developed, particularly for use in convertershaped vessels. The burner has the dual role of heating a cold charge and refining by oxygen injection. Preliminary results appear promising. A new design of the B.I.S.R.A. oil burner incorporates a throat of variable cross-sectional area to enable the characteristic high thrust efficiency of the normal burner to be maintained over a wide range of fuel input rates. Tests so far made have been encouraging enough to warrant further experiments [see A. W. DURRANT, J. Inst. Fuel, 1962, 35, 3521. Following the recent publication of work indicating a strong effect on heat transfer from a flame to a surface by the application of an electric field, some small-scale experiments have

\V. A. Kirkby

296

been carried out which show increases in heat transfer coefficient of the order of 100 per cent. Further experiments on a larger scale have been planned. Combustion

Research

at C.E.R.L.

An outline of recent research at the Central Electricity Research Laboratories, Leatherhead, has been given in a paper by D. H. LUCAS, Head of Physics Division, C.E.R.L. [J. Inst. Fuel, 1963,36, 2031. The following items are of notable interest in connection with combustion operations. A rotary nozzle has been devised through which very short and violent pulses of compressed air can be applied to prevent blockages in fuel bunkers and feeders. A coal riffle has been designed to improve the distribution of pulverized coal from one mill to a number of burners. The use of numbers of suction pyrometers and other instruments involving rather laborious manipulation for measuring the heat distribution in a furnace is obviated by the use of a heatflow strap which has been developed. It consists essentially of a strip of stainless steel with differential thermocouples installed in it. In studying the corrosion and blockage of airheaters it has been found that some, at least, of the acid smuts formed in oil-burning boilers are produced in the air-heater. The efficiency of electrostatic precipitators is found to depend markedly on the uniform distribution of the flue gas. Installing a cyclone before a precipitator provides no benefit. Rapping by impact is far superior to rapping by vibration. Work on power station plumes has shown that their rise is considerably higher than was generally thought. There is no existing theoretical treatment which is confirmed by the C.E.R.L. experimental results. A dust pollution gauge has been developed which is regarded as being more appropriate to power station conditions than the standard deposit gauge. In connection with the polluting effect of dust, it is considered better to take measurements in the chimney itself or its associated ducting than by measurements in the field. It the nuisance value of the dust in the duct is its polluting effect at some point measured,

Vol.

7

adjacent to the power station can be calculated. To this end a recording flue dust monitor has been developed and is being widely installed for routine use. High Pressure Combustion in Diffusion Flames H. MEIER zu KICKER, Institut fiir Brennstoffc-

hemie der T.H. Aachen, has recently described an investigation on combustion in diffusion flames at increased pressure [BrennstChemie, 1963, 44, 81 and 1291. Information on this is of increasing importance in view of new technical applications of combustion at increased pressure and temperature. The first of these two papers deals with the speed of unidimensional combustion of liquid hydrocarbons with oxygen. In the second paper the subject is particularly the dependence of the speed of combustion of both hydrocarbons and oxygen-containing compounds on pressure and temperature. Using a quartz crucible and a combustion chamber whose volume remained constant, with provision for recording the development of the total pressure, the combustion of these fuels with oxygen at initial pressures between 20 and 60 atm, was studied. Relationships were found for the dependence of combustion time on the amount of fuel burnt for different initial pressures of oxygen; dependence of specific combustion speed (mg/sec cm2) on (i) free fuel surface for different initial pressures of oxygen, (ii) initial pressure of oxygen for different fuel surface areas, (iii) mean total pressure for several fuels; and (iv) connection between dependence on pressure, combustion speed and heats of combustion of the fuels used. Congress

on Combustion

Engines,

1965

The Seventh International Congress on Combustion Engines will be held in London during 26 to 30 April 1965. It will cover (a) research and development and maintenance problems and future prospects for internal combustion engines, and (b) developments and current problems in the gas turbine field, especially combustion and temperature problems, thermal shock, creep and corrosion. Offers of papers, not later than 20 November 1963, and further enquiries should be addressed

Recent

September 1963

developments and notes

to the respective National Committees of the Congrcs International des Machines g Combustion, or to the Secretary-General of the Permanent Committee of CIMAC, 10 Avenue Hoche, Paris VIIIe. Flambeau The first issue of The Gas Council’s new quarterly journal Flambeau appeared in May. It is being devoted to the industrial and commercial uses of gas, and it is intended that it should supplement existing technical publicity by presenting more fully the story of High Sfeed Gas in modern industry. The gas industry’s technical advisory service to industry will be featured and there will be general articles dealing with the use of gas in factories and commercial establishments. It happens that this new journal makes its first appearance at a time when the Institution of Gas Engineers is celebrating its centenary, and the first article is by Dr A. E. HAFFNER, the President of the Institution, dealing with the main features of the present day expansion of the industry. Diesel Engine

Exhaust

Smoke

In June 1960 The Institute of Road Transport Engineers formed a study group to enquire into the subject of air pollution from the exhaust fumes of vehicles and their final report was issued in March. In connection with the salient problem of diesel engine exhaust smoke, it is considered that smokemeter results are susceptible to too many factors for them to be suitable for testing all diesel engined vehicles to a standard density limit. The use of smokemeters, however, as a deterrent would be valuable provided that the limit set is based on an absolute This value to which all readings can be related. limit should take engine size, that is, volume of exhaust emission, into consideration. Some form of stipulated power/weight ratio should provide the basis of more stringent legislation. This would lead to a tendency to postpone the onset of visible exhaust smoke due to rapid deterioration of overworked engines and it would also relieve the problem of the slow moving and smoking vehicle due to being underpowered.

297

Temperature Measurement The proceedings of the Fourth Symposizlm on Temperature, organized by the American Institute of Physics, and held in Columbus, Ohio, 27 to 31 March, 1961, have recently been published by Reinhold and Chapman and Hall. It is Volume III in a series which includes two earlier volumes on this subject, published in 1941 and 1955. Over 250 individual papers are included and the work is issued in three parts : Part 1, Basic concepts, standards and methods, 848 pp, 220s; Part 2, Applied methods and instruments, 1094 pp, 236s; Part 3, Biology and medicine, 700 pp. 130s. Thermal

Stability

of Jet Fuels

A survey of considerable magnitude on the thermal stability of petroleum jet fuels was jointly sponsored by the National Petroleum Refiners Association, Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the Bartlesville Petroleum Research Center, Bureau of Mines, Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and the results of this survey have now been published by F. G. SCHWARTZ and B. H. ECCLESTON [U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines. Infmmation Circular 8140, 1962; 102 pp]. The shrvey arose out of the concern of petroleum refiners about the thermal stresses to which fuels will be subjected in supersonic aircraft. The information summarized has been obtained from nearly 100 reports many of which have resulted from work sponsored by defence agencies and have had only limited circulation. In addition, information was gained from interviews with representatives of over 35 companies or agencies actively interested in research in this field. Amongst the conclusions it is stated that thermal stability requirements for jet fukls for supersonic operation up to Mach 3 speeds can be met by fuels similar to JP-6, but for higher speeds further refinement of hydrocarbon fuels will be required or development of special fuels will be necessary to attain the requisite therma stability. Combustion of Sulphite Liquor Some preliminary experiments have been described by M. T. MONAGHANand R. G. SIDDALL,

W.

298

Vol.

A. Kirkby

Department of Fuel Technology and Chemical Engineering, University of Sheffield, on the combustion of single drops of waste sulphite liquor [Tech. Pa$. Pulfi Paper Id N.Y. 1963, 46, 891. The apparatus and technique used were the same essentially as in several investigations for tracing the combustion history of liquid fuels. The system provides for drops of liquor of about 2 000 microns initial diameter, suspended on a silica fibre, being inserted in a furnace and observations taken of the shadow of individual drops projected on a calibrated graticule. Measurements of ignition lag and burning time were taken over the temperature range of about 500” to 800°C. Four fairly well defined stages of combustion were seen to occur at all temperatures above 550°C (i) boiling, (ii) carbonization, (iii) ignition of carbonized residue, often with sudden flash of bluish flame, and (iv) solid glows bright red. The sample of waste sulphite liquor tested contained 47.4 per cent of water and 15.7 per cent of ash, and it is considered that the method could be used to assess the effect of liquor composition, particularly water content, on burning characteristics. Information on this would be valuable in the treatment of waste liquors. Fire Fighting by Jet Engine Dr D. J. RASBASH of the Joint Fire Research Organization, Boreham Wood, Herts, has given an account of fire fighting experiments using gas and foam generated by a jet engine [Engineer, Lond, 31 May 19631. These have now reached the stage where an appliance could be developed for firemen to gain experience and Experiments eventually use at actual fires. with a prototype appliance suggest that its practical fire-fighting possibilities might be considerable, providing a fire has not gone too far. Dense hot smoke in premises cannot be dealt with adequately by fans to increase the ventilation. The possibility of using an inert gas was considered, to reduce the combustion or smoke formation by the fire, and it was suggested that sufficient gas could be obtained by using an appliance based on a jet engine. The National Gas Turbine Establishment

7

developed an experimental device based on a Viper jet engine and designed to produce a gas containing seven per cent oxygen at a rate of 45 000 ft3 / min. The gas is sufficiently low in oxygen content to extinguish flaming combustion although smouldering fire would not be stopped completely. The appliance is mounted on a six-ton lorry and carries with it sufficient fuel to produce the maximum amount of gas for thirty minutes. The gas stream may be used with a suitable detergent to produce a high expansion foam. This controls fires in basements more easily than gas and because of its water content it cools hot surfaces more rapidly. Knocking

Combustion

In a paper published just over two years ago, D. DOWNS, S. T. GRIFFITHS and R. W. WHEELER [J. Inst. Petrol 1961, 47, l] propounded at least two processes as constituting the overall anti-knock action of TEL: (i) the preparational, ensuring that the organic molecule decomposes to PbO at the right time and in the right form for maximum effectiveness; and (ii) the inhibiting, which determines the inherent anti-knock capabilities of the PbO in the given set of circumstances. In this paper the first process was mainly studied and now in a recent paper [J. Inst. Petrol. 1963, 49, S-251 these investigators describe further work carried out in the laboratory of Ricardo & Co. Engineers (1927) Ltd, dealing with the second process. One or two, amongst several, interesting results may be noted. In studying the pre-flame chemical reactions, chromatographic analysis has shown that organic peroxides appear to be important in the first stage of two-stage ignition, up to the formation of the cool flame; thereafter, as the second stage proceeds, hydrogen peroxide, which is present also in the first stage, becomes increasingly more important. TEL has little effect on the first stage, its main effect is in the second stage where it lowers specifically the hydrogen peroxide concentration and appears to leave the organic peroxide virtually unchanged. Methanol and formaldehyde concentrations in the ‘end gas’ also rise principally in the second stage, the former being only one-twentieth of the latter.

September

1963

Recent

developments

Straight-chain fuels give particularly high methanol concentrations as compared with formaldehyde. Additives such as TEL lower the concentration of formaldehyde and methanol, but this effect is less in straight-chain fuels. Flame Research

at IJmuiden

The work of the International Flame Research Foundation has now been carried on at IJmuiden for fifteen years and at the recent summer meeting of The Institute of Fuel in Amsterdam, a review of the salient features of the investigations and plans for future research was given in a paper by Professor Ir J. E. DE GRAAF, one of the initiators of the project, Ir G. W. VAN STEIN CALLENFELS, General Secretary of the Foundation, and Dr J. M. BBER, Head of the Research Station at IJmuiden. The Joint Committee which governs the research work of the Foundation, on the properties of industrial furnace flames from gas, oil, and pulverized fuel, has been constituted for most of its existence of representatives of five participating countries, Belgium, France, Great Western Britain, Holland and the U.S.A. Germany joined the group in 1962. In addition to the annual contributions from these countries, there is substantial financial aid from the European Coal and Steel Community. It is considered that the information obtained in the investigations should provide furnace designers and flame users with new ideas for applied research in their particular fields. Application of the research results will usually require ‘translation’ work by the fuel engineer or furnace designer. There are several results of the work which are important examples from the point of view of the potentialities of application. For example, the correlation found between the C/H ratio of the fuel and the flame emissivity gives a quantitative basis for the ‘carburation’ of oil in gas flames. The result of the study of blast atomized burners which showed that the thrust these burners produced was the most important single variable that influenced flame characteristics gives industry a valuable yardstick for the assessment and choice of burners of this type. Some of the results of the pressure jet oil trials suggest simple ways in which flame pro-

and notes

perties and particularly intensity can be controlled effectively.

299

of combustion

The information on the effects of recirculation on the ignition and combustion of pulverized coal together with the model laws developed for the cold modelling of mixing patterns in furnaces are being applied to development and research in both Great Britain and France. The tools of experimental flame research, measurement techniques and methods of investigation which have been developed in the course of the work in I Jmuiden are now widely applied in flame research. In the annual report of the Council of the British Flame Research Committee for 1962, issued at the end of April last, the Chairman, Professor 0. A. SAUNDERS, states that the potentialities of the Foundation’s work are far greater than can be developed by the funds at present at its disposal. The British contribution agreed for 1963 is approximately %9 700 and consideration is to be given during the year as to the possibility of increasing this amount. One of the outstanding activities of the British Committee during 1962 was the Second ‘Flames and Industry’ Symposium, held in June, in the organization of which The Institute of Fuel collaborated, having previously published five papers surveying the work of the Foundation which formed the basis of valuable discussions. Low Pressure Measurements At the suggestion of the Joint British Committee for Vacuum Science and Technology a conference on ‘Fundamental Problems of Low Pressure Measurements’ will be held at the National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, from 23 to 25 September 1964. It will be organized jointly by the National Physical Laboratory and The Institute of Physics and The Physical Society. The conference will consider basic principles of low pressure measurements and some of the associated problems, including accuracy in the field of low pressure measurements, developments in vacuum gauges, measurement of partial pressures, pressure measurements in the range below and adjacent to atmospheric pressure, vacuum gauge calibration.

15:. A. Kirkby

300

There will be a number of invited papers covering recent work in the field, and offers of contributions are invited for consideration by the Conference Committee, as soon as possible, but not later than 30 November 1963. A small display of British exhibits cognate to the subject will be held in association.. with the conference . requests for application Offers of papers, forms and all other equiries should be addressed to Mr R. S. DADSON, Standards Division, National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, Middlesex. W. A. KIRKBY

FUEL Readers of Combzlstion and Flame may like to know that the July issue of Fuel contained Notes on : Automation in industry Interlaboratory study of a test method Domestic heating market Prospects for EEC energy policy while the September issue of that journal contains further Notes on : Russian measurement of air pollutants Possibilities for fuel cells Strategy of research in fuel utilization Warren Spring Laboratory research

MEETINGS Colloquium A one-day University Department

on the Decomposition

and Ignition

of Peroxides

colloquium on the Decomposition and Ignition of Peroxides is to be held at Oxford on 7 January 1964. Further information may be obtained from Dr W. G. Parker, of Chemistry, College of Advanced Technology, Birmingham 4. Tenth

International

Symposium

on Combustion

The Tenth International Symposium on Combustion will be held at Cambridge University during 17 to 24 August 1964. Further details may be obtained from the Combustion Institute, Union Trust Building, Pittsburg 19, Pa. or from the Secretary, Combustion Symposium Local Committee, Department of Physical Chemistry, Lensfield, Cambridge, England. Full

details

and Flame.

of both

these

meetings

will be published

in the December

issue

of Combustion