Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers,Part E: Journal of Process Mechanical Engineering

The President recalls his early days in a coal mining community which kindled his interest in mechanical engineering, and tells of his subsequent introduction into the nascent offshore oil and gas industry in the early 1960s. His career has been closely linked to the development of devices to drill for and produce oil in harsh environments in all quarters of the globe. Many of the novel ideas that emanated from a pioneering industry were subjected to the author's evaluation and certification, and the more interesting of these are described, together with pointers for future offshore developments. The Piper Alpha accident in the North Sea resulted in the Cullen Inquiry, to which the author presented the evidence of the Institution. Subsequent to this he has examined operating procedures of many offshore organizations and submits his evaluation of the Cullen recommendation and the prospect for safer operations in the future. Finally the President looks at unification and related matters, and offers views on the way forward for the Institution.

The timing scroll is an important feeding mechanism on packaging lines. As packaging line speeds have increased and the shape of containers has become more diverse, the techniques used for the design and manufacture of such timing scrolls have become critical for successful packaging line performance. Since 1980, various techniques have evolved to improve scroll design, manufacture and the associated line performance. In recent years, as CAD (computer aided design), CAM (computer aided manufacture) and CNC (computer numerical control) techniques have evolved, scroll design and manufacturing techniques began to be linked with computer techniques. In this paper, a scroll design and manufacturing package is presented which can be run on a minicomputer, such as a μ-VAX on an IBM PC clone. This scroll package can produce a timing scroll for any type of container with a correct pocket shape and good dynamic characteristic. Tests using carefully chosen containers have been made using this package and the results indicate that the scrolls obtained by this package have the correct pocket shape and good line performance. However, the design of a good pick-up geometry for some container shapes remains a problem.

Dust particles from the basic oxygen furnace steelmaking process were removed from air streams using a laboratory high-gradient magnetic filter. Particle sizes and number concentrations were determined by an optical particle spectrometer and were found to be largely in the submicrometre range. Dust loadability increased greatly when a magnetic field was applied and showed no deterioration in filter performance, even though the matrix had captured 10 times its own volume of dust. Particle penetrations of 1 per cent and less were achieved for submicrometre particles down to an optically measurable 0.24 μm diameter. Varying only one parameter at a time has isolated the individual effects of filter length, magnetic field, matrix packing fraction, gas velocity and wire size and aspect ratio. The dimensionless groups in an idealized single-wire model for high-gradient magnetic filtration are not adequate for a real filter. Other dimensionless parameters, viz. average dimensionless wire separation and cumulative dimensionless wire blockage, arise and are found to be important.

A laser Doppler anemometer (LDA) is used to measure velocity profiles and turbulence levels of water flow in the first few diameters downstream of a T-junction. The ‘vertical’ limb of the T-junction is half the diameter of the ‘horizontal’ limb, one end of which is blanked off. Flow passes from the smaller into the larger tube and LDA measurements of axial and tangential velocity components are conducted in the larger tube up to 3.75 diameters downstream of the T-junction at Reynolds numbers of 10.5 × 10⁴ and 7.42 × 10⁴. The pipe geometry is a commonly occurring configuration in crude oil pipelines and is of interest because of its possible ability to break up and mix water droplets to an extent sufficient for accurate grab sampling. LDA measurements of r.m.s. velocity fluctuations give information on the level of turbulent diffusivity and hence the maximum size of droplets that can be present in crude oil flow in the same geometry. A novel mathematical technique is used to interpolate between LDA measurements of mean velocity and to calculate the radial component of mean velocity. The three-dimensional velocity distributions thus formulated are used to predict water droplet concentration profiles downstream of the T-junction using the Segev approach—that is by solving numerically a differential equation for concentration of a contaminant under conditions of turbulent diffusion. Results are compared with field measurements in a similar geometry.

Tests to failure have been carried out on six smooth pipe bends constructed by hand lay-up from polyester resin and glass in the form of chopped strand mat. The failure loads under out-of-plane bending only are compared with those where this type of loading is combined with internal pressure. The results are discussed in relation to the design procedure adopted in BS 7159: 1989.

This paper presents an analytical model for dynamic simulation of the tandem mills. The model is a comprehensive one which includes the consideration of elasticity and damping effect at the rolls, plastic deformation at the bite region, stress propagation tensional waves among stands, external scroll force at the back-up rolls and torsional vibration of the work roll. Simulation results show that chatter and other dynamic phenomena can successfully be predicted. It is believed that this model will be useful in the design and control of tandem mills.

An international conference on ‘Management of in-service inspection of pressure systems’ was held in London on 9–10 March 1993