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SUMMARY:Applying simple mathematical models in the mining and energy indus
 tries - Jason Furtney\, Itasca International
DTSTART:20250703T103000Z
DTEND:20250703T113000Z
UID:TALK233239@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Catherine Pearson
DESCRIPTION:In this talk I hope to show how I applied what I learned at th
 e IEEF in my career as a consulting engineer. Of particular utility to me 
 has been the idea of breaking a complex engineering problem into small tra
 ctable pieces.  I am obliged to briefly introduce my company\, Itasca Inte
 rnational\, and the type of work we do. I will show three examples:\nPotas
 h is a water soluble rock made of potassium salts\, it is economically imp
 ortant because its use as a fertilizer. In North America\, potash is solut
 ion mined by circulating water that dissolves the rock. This is a rich pro
 blem that involves chemistry\, fluid flow\, heat transfer\, and geomechani
 cs. I will demonstrate some models that are used to help design solution m
 ines\, forecast production\, and diagnose operational problems.\nExplosive
 s are an inexpensive means to break and move rock for civil purposes like 
 tunneling\, road cut development\, and open pit mine excavation. Rock blas
 ting is a complex set of processes that span several orders of magnitude i
 n time-scale\, length-scale\, and stress magnitude. I will describe some s
 imple mathematical and numerical models that have helped understand blasti
 ng.\nOnshore wind energy is rapidly growing in the United States\, partial
 ly as a consequence of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. During constru
 ction\, the world's largest mobile cranes are used to lift the nacelle and
  blades of turbines. There have been several high profile cases of these l
 arge cranes tipping over and being destroyed during construction. It is 20
 25\, so every talk has to have something about machine learning now: I wil
 l describe the technical problem of soil bearing capacity failure and show
  how machine learning\, via the concept of a surrogate model\, has helped 
 make wind turbine installation faster\, safer\, and less expensive.\n\nBio
 :  Jason Furtney was a student at the IEEF from 2002 to 2006 after studyin
 g Geology at Edinburgh University. Since leaving the institute\, Jason has
  been working as a consulting engineer for Itasca International\, a geomec
 hanics consulting and software company in Minneapolis\, Minnesota.
LOCATION:Open Plan Area\, Institute for Energy and Environmental Flows\, M
 adingley Rise CB3 0EZ
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