Search results for "Mining engineering"
showing 10 items of 60 documents
The Reconstruction of Production and Storage Sites for Chemical Warfare Agents and Weapons from Both World Wars in the Context of Assessing Former Mu…
2017
This chapter begins by listing the quantities and sites of chemical agent production during both world wars and outlining the relative importance of these new weapons. Using the example of the production sites of World War II, the setting in which the construction and operation of these factories took place will be described, as well as the structure of the facilities. It will be shown that it was not only Fritz Haber’s former colleagues who made important contributions to the research of chemical warfare agents and their production, but that an important role was also played by students of his successor at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry. In order t…
The Ignoble Fuel
2012
Perhaps the first historic mention of a substance derived from coal goes back to the Bible, when Yahweh orders Noah to build the famous ark.
Petrography and decay of a marly limestone in the cloister of a medieval cathedral in Sicily
2004
This paper deals with a significant process of decohesion of a marly limestone, taking place in the cloister of the medieval Cathedral of Cefalu, a pleasant town on the northern coast of Sicily. After desalination with deionised water and consolidation with ethyl silicate, the decay of the stone became faster. The aim of our study is to characterise the stony material and investigate the observed decay phenomena. The stone, that is a poor building material indeed, is characterised by means of petrographical, chemical and physical analyses on samples taken from the monument. Furthermore, experimental tests are performed in the laboratory in order to highlight the causes of incompatibility be…
Rock decay phenomena and collapse processes in the “Latomiae del Paradiso” in Syracuse (Sicily)
2014
The Latomiae (origin: Greek latomia, from laas, las stone plus –tomia tomy ) del Paradiso in Syracuse are Magna Graecia rock quarries, located in the coastal areas of Southern Italy and internationally renowned for their impressive environment. The few historical technical records do not help clarify the events that led to their current configuration since a series of instability phenomena occurred due to decay processes over time. Through a geotechnical back-analysis, this work highlights the failure phenomena, which may have led to the current configuration of the easterly side of the Latomiae del Paradiso. The back-analysis process was carried out by means of numerical modelling, support…
One-step electrodeposition of superhydrophobic coating on 316L stainless steel
2021
Superhydrophobic coatings were fabricated through a one-step electrochemical process onto the surface of 316L stainless steel samples. The presence of hierarchical structures at micro/nanoscale and manganese stearate into the coatings gave superhydrophobicity to the coating, with contact angle of ~160°, and self-cleaning ability. Corrosion resistance of 316L samples was also assessed also after the electrodeposition process through Electrochemical Impedance Spectra recorded in an aqueous solution mimicking seawater condition.
The Role of Formal Education in Developing Critical Thinking Skills of Engineering Students
2020
The hereby paper intends to acknowledge and discuss the concept of critical thinking and the influence of this ability on engineering students. The purpose of this research is to establish the criteria according to which some students think more critically compared to other students in the same field of study. Logic is a term that seems simple, although very few know how to access that logical part of the human brain. This research has shown that the students’ level of critical thinking is not related to the year of study. Therefore, there are no activities in faculties that have a significant influence on the development of critical thinking. Moreover, it has resulted that female participa…
Preliminary 1H NMR study on archaeological waterlogged wood.
2005
Magnetic Resonance Relaxation (MRR) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) are powerful tools to obtain detailed information on the pore space structure that one is unlikely to obtain in other ways. These techniques are particularly suitable for Cultural Heritage materials, because they use water 1H nuclei as a probe. Interaction with water is one of the main causes of deterioration of materials. Porous structure in wood, for example, favours the penetration of water, which can carry polluting substances and promote mould growth. A particular case is waterlogged wood from underwater discoveries and moist sites; in fact, these finds are very fragile because of chemical, physical and biological…
In situ remediation of polluted Spolic Technosols using Ca(OH)2 and smectitic marlstone
2014
Technosols are soils developed on non-traditional substrates and containing large quantities of materials mostly due to intensive human industrial activity, such as artefacts. The increasing number of sites affected by Technosols and their impact on the environment as growing media for plants or as source of pollutants require an understanding of their functioning and evolution, above all the knowledge on the transport of toxic substances from contaminated technogenic soils to groundwater. A case study on properties, remediation and evaluation of Technosols made up by vitrified fly ash and glass–ceramics in Italy was carried out. Original technogenic soils, classified as Spolic Technosols (…
Problems of soil and groundwater pollution in the disposal of “marble” slurries in NW Sicily
2007
This work deals with disposal of slurries generated during the cutting and polishing processes of slabs of decorative sedimentary carbonate rocks in the north western Sicily. At present, they are used as fillers of dismantled quarries near the sawmills and, as a final step of reclamation, are covered with earth layers. In spite of such inexpensive solution, there is lack of knowledge about the composition of the waste. In order to assess if there is any threat for the environment and to suggest indications for alternative solutions, such as recycling or inactivation processes, the slurries were analysed by XR diffraction, simultaneous thermal analysis, ICP/MS, ionic chromatography, FTIR, UV…
Environmental impact of early Basque mining and smelting recorded in a high ash minerogenic peat deposit.
2004
International audience; More than four metres of core, covering almost 5000 years of deposition, were collected in a high ash minerogenic peat deposit located in the High Aldudes valley (Basque country), an area well known for its mineral abundance, exploited from Roman Times at least.Although minerogenic peatlands are not generally considered as the best archives to reconstruct past atmospheric metal deposition history, lead isotopic geochemistry demonstrates the integrity of the Pb record at least within the three upper meters; that is to say over the last four millennia.Zn, Cd and Cumay have been widely redistributed either by biological cycling, advective groundwater movements, or diffu…