Caldera Engineering, Lc

Caldera Engineering LLC

Brigham Young University

Craig C Smith

Jeffrey Robison

Stephen R Chipman

Michael R Luque

Herman Pieterse

Jeffrey C Robison

A nozzle design and method for designing such a nozzle being adapted for three phase slurry flow from the choke into the flash tank during pressure let-down in autoclave mining operations that uses a selection of the expansion ratio in the choke to select a nozzle dispersion angle to select a spread of the flow over the slurry pool in the flash tank, to generally maximize the use of the pool for energy dissipation without causing undo wear and tear on the tank walls.

Controlled dispersion multi-phase nozzle and method of making the same

A valve plug design is disclosed that uses a plug head band and a retaining ring to restrain a valve plug head to a valve plug stem. This invention is specifically directed to providing valve plugs where the plug head material is different and distinct from the plug stem material and where each material is selected to optimize its performance. Moreover, this invention is provided with a means for fixing and removing the plug head to and from the plug stem that can easily be worked in the field without special purpose manufacturing equipment, thereby making the maintenance, repair and replacement of plug head easier for users. This valve plug design subjects the plug head to reduced stresses thereby enhances the operating life of the valve and valve plug. This valve plug design provides a shock absorbing, compliance barrier around and/or under the plug head. This invention also provides a more uniform and broadened contact surface between the plug head and the plug stem, further reducing mechanical stresses to the plug head. This plug head invention requires less material and thus leads to reduced manufacturing costs and does not require welding to fasten the plug head to the plug stem, thereby permitting heat treatments as required without adverse impacts to the plug head to plug stem joint. Also, this invention is adapted to function in cooperation sensors embedded at the plug head&mdash;valve plug stem interface to permit the monitoring of alignment stresses on the valve plug head.

Banded valve plug head

A new segmented choke is provided. Designed to reduce thermal stresses created when the fluid temperature fluctuate, this invention is constructed of segmented ceramic members fit within a relatively thin-walled retainer, shrunk fit thereto, thereby allowing the retainer to be more compliant. Shorter, multiple segments used in this invention are also easier to manufacture, can be produced with tighter tolerances, provide easier access thereby reducing maintenance costs and allow for the inclusion of sensors in the individual ceramic segments. This invention also provides improvements in size, manufacturing cost, ease of use and operating efficiency over prior choke devices.

Segmented ceramic choke

A new valve device adapted specifically for use with hot erosive flow streams is provided. This valve device has an inner plug head, which modulates and throttles the amount of flow passing through the valve when the valve is open. The inner plug head is shaped so that as the valve plug approaches the closed position, the inner plug head blocks most of the flow path, reducing the flow to a small amount. The valve of this invention has an outer plug head the contacts the valve's outer ceramic seat as the valve reaches the closed position. Contact between the outer ceramic seat and the outer ceramic plug entirely shuts off flow through the valve.

Double-seated shutoff valve

A new flash tube device adapted specifically for use with hot erosive flow streams is provided. This flash tube uses an extension cone fixed to the outlet of a choke to create an extension choke to insure that the shock wave occurs within the extension choke, thereby decreasing the flow velocity to a subsonic level, reducing the kinetic energy of the flow as it leaves the extension choke. By moving the shock wave into the extension choke, this device dramatically improves the working life of the flash tank, allowing for easier separation of fluid/solids and vapor in the flash tank.

Flash tube device

An electronic system for processing sampled data signals to determine the frequency spectra of the signals comprises windowing the sampled signal to a length of an MN data point series. The series of data points is divided into M contiguous blocks numbered from 0 to M-1, each block containing N data points numbered from 0 to N-1. Each block is then added into a memory having N registers numbered from 0 to N-1, the value of the data point in each block being added into the value in the correspondingly numbered register such that each numbered register contains the sum of correspondingly numbered data points in the blocks, and such that the memory comprises a time-aliased series of N data points. The time-aliased series is then Fourier transformed, yielding a spectra with leakage consistent with a window of length MN at the spectral lines of the N-point transform. A smoothed sinc windowing function for leakage to adjacent spectral lines is also described.

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Provo, UT, United States of America

Craig C Smith