New Metals and Chemicals (United Kingdom)

ABSTRACT The Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ) hosts the most valuable deposit of polymetallic nodules yet discovered. International Seabed Authority exploration contractors, such as Tonga Offshore Mining Limited, Nauru Ocean Resources Incorporated and Marawa Research and Exploration Limited, routinely conduct ship-based 12 kHz multibeam echosounder surveys over all or parts of their exploration contract areas. This is often supported by physical seabed samples, side-scan sonar, sub-bottom profile sonar and seabed photographs. Geological maps for seven discrete mapped areas are presented. Basaltic abyssal plains of mid-Eocene to early Miocene age are overlain by 75–100 m of mid-Eocene and younger deep-sea chalks of the Marquesas Oceanic Formation. In turn, the chalk is overlain by up to 27 m of early Miocene to present, often mobile, siliceous clay-ooze sediment of the Clipperton Oceanic Formation. This stratigraphy is crosscut by a very wide variety of mostly volcanic magmatic rock units.

Abstract New polyimide foams and polyimide foam filled honeycombs are currently being developed at NASA, its licensee Sordal Inc. (USA) and Newmet (UK) under the trade name Solrex®. These materials are foreseen for Space, Aerospace, Maritime & Medicine applications. In this paper selected properties of these new materials with different densities are described.The investigated key properties are compression strength, thermal conductivity and moisture gain. The dependence of these properties on density, temperature and thermal cycling is discussed. Limits of the used characterisation methods are discussed. Possible applications are defined.

Abstract There is a growing need for the use of polymers in high-strength and engineering applications, and many new materials and composites have been developed to satisfy this need. Traditionally, thermosetting polymers have been employed as high-strength materials, with the incorporation of various fillers or additives to improve shortcomings in strength and temperature performance. Although these materials are largely unrivaled in high-temperature performance, some of the newer engineering thermoplastics, such as poly(ether ether ketone)(PEEK), poly(ether sulfone) (PES), poly(pheny1ene sulfide) (PPS), and the new backbone liquid-crystal polymers are becoming much more widely used. With this widespread use and with the increasing complexity of polymer blends and composites, there is a strong requirement for a universal means of characterizing such materials in terms of mechanical properties and high-temperature performance. A powerful and versatile analytical technique which is capable of application t...

Based on the strain-hardening-material law, a method of long-term-creep prediction is proposed which takes into account all practical line-design and operating conditions and estimates the reduction in conductor tension and the increase in its sag due to creep with acceptable accuracy. Correlation between theory and practice is illustrated by both laboratory and field measurements. Selected examples are given on the application of the method for line design and for the selection of optimum sagging procedure of a line. Areas of further research and investigations on overhead-line creep are indicated.