INFORMATION MATHEMATICAL V.

E.

METHODS

IN GLASS

TECHNOLOGY

Manevich

A conference was held in D e c e m b e r 1972 in Moscow to deal with the subject Mathematical Methods in G l a s s Technology, organized by the All-Union D. I~ Mendeleev Chemical Society (Moscow Commission), the Scientific Council of the State C o m m i t t e e f o r Building M a t e r i a l s of the USSR for Science and Technology r e sponsible for the p r o b l e m New Inorganic M a t e r i a l s and Coatings Based on Heat R e s i s t a n t Compounds, and the Scientific-Engineering Council of the Ministry of the Building M a t e r i a l s Industry of the USSR. The work of the conference was s h a r e d by m o r e than 200 scientific w o r k e r s , m e m b e r s of the Minist r i e s and Regional C o m m i t t e e s , d e s i g n e r s , Higher Educational Institutions, and w o r k e r s in the e n t e r p r i s e s of the glass industry and f a c t o r y l a b o r a t o r i e s . The r e p r e s e n t a t i v e of the Organizational C o m m i t t e e , Doctor of Chemical Sciences, P r o f e s s o r M. S. Aslanova, opening the Conference, mentioned the wide application of m a t h e m a t i c a l methods in the p r a c t i c a l work of scientific r e s e a r c h , planning, and design institutes, and g l a s s e n t e r p r i s e s . The s p h e r e of a p p l i c a tion of these methods in g l a s s technology includes methodological development, fundamental r e s e a r c h r e l a t e d to the development of new and i m p r o v e d technological p r o c e s s e s , and the c r e a t i o n of s y s t e m s of o p t i m u m control of technology. The Deputy D i r e c t o r of the Scientific-Engineering Council of the Ministry of Building M a t e r i a l s Industry of the USSR, O. G. Shchukin, mentioned in his a d d r e s s the important role of m a t h e m a t i c a l methods and m e a n s of c o m p u t e r techniques in solving p r o b l e m s facing the building g l a s s industry. Special attention should be given to fundamental r e s e a r c h aimed at c r e a t i n g new, m o r e effective technical p r o c e s s e s and m a t e r i a l s , and also for developing s y s t e m s of optimum control of technical conditions. A qualitative des c r i p t i o n of the technology at the stage of development will facilitate the s e l e c t i o n of optimum s t r u c t u r e s in the p r o c e s s . The a d d r e s s also e m p h a s i s e d questions of p r e p a r i n g t e a m s and i n c r e a s i n g their skills with the use of methods of applied m a t h e m a t i c s and c o m p u t e r techniques. Several communications dealt with the hardening and annealing of g l a s s . R. Z~ Fridkin examined the p r o b l e m s of calculating the t e m p e r a t u r e field and s t r e s s field in the heat p r o c e s s i n g of g l a s s . The method discussed, together with work on the r e l a x a t i o n of s t r e s s e s completed at th@ Institute of Silicate C h e m i s t r y of the A c a d e m y of Sciences USSR, facilitated the solution of p r a c t i c a l p r o b l e m s r e l a t e d to the annealing of window g l a s s in the machine shafts of v e r t i c a l drawing equipment for chilled automobile glass, etc. O. I. Pukhlik and I. A. Boguslavskii r e p o r t e d on their e x p e r i e n c e with the choice of the optimum technical cycle for g l a s s hardening, using a c o m p u t e r . A n u m b e r of p a p e r s dealt with the s t a t i s t i c a l analysis of glass strength. V. I. Shelyubskii and N. A. Velikovskaya, dealt with a method of selecting the m a x i m u m strength values of g l a s s as a function of the p r o b a b i l i t y of failure in designing g l a s s a r t i c l e s , glazing buildings, and a p p a r a t u s . P r o b l e m s of using c o m p u t e r s for developing new g l a s s e s and m a t e r i a l s based on them w e r e discussed in p a p e r s by K. T. Bondarev, S. E. B a r a n t s e v a y a , L. A. Zhunina, V. I. D'yakonovaya, and o t h e r s . The conference d i s c u s s e d extensively work connected with computing heat and m a s s exchange in g l a s s f u r n a c e s . The solution to c e r t a i n p r o b l e m s will involve using t h e r m o d y n a m i c methods (a p a p e r by G. M. Matveev and T. V. El'kin), methods of physical modelling (a r e p o r t by V. V. Klimenko and others), and s t a t i s t i c a l methods (a r e p o r t by V. V. Klimenko). T r a n s l a t e d f r o m Steklo i K e r a m i k a , No. 3, p. 38, March, 1973.

9 1974 Consultants Bureau, a division o f Plenum Publishing Corporation, 227 g'est 17th Street, New York, N. Y. 1001I. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher, zl copy of this article is available from the publisher for $15.00.

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A r e p o r t of Oo N. Popov and l=t. Z. Fridkin attracted great interest; it dealt with a method of computing the p r o c e s s of destruction of r e f r a c t o r y blocks in glass furnaces. The p r o b l e m s of forming g l a s s f i b e r were dealt with in a paper by M. S. Aslanov, S. S. Gordon, M. D. Kodakovskii, G. A. Shmatkov and Ya. Ya. Anisimov. They analyzed the heat exchange in forming, the h y d r o d y n a m i c s of viscous liquids, and the calculation of the forming devices. Methods of computing forming cycles for sheet glass were dealt with in papers by F. G. Solinov, E. A. ]3ievetskii, M. G. Chelidze, V. E. Manevich, and V. V. Vishnyakov. N. Kondratev and V. P. Kurkin discussed their experience with the use of methods of planning exp e r i m e n t s for molding s i n g l e - s t r a n d light conductors. Not all of the work discussed at the conference was dealt with at a sufficiently high scientific level. A number of papers did not have any serious p r a c t i c a l significance. Nevertheless the conference was of undoubted use to a wide range of specialists. It is opposite to mention that the conference involved the participation of a large number of colleagues f r o m regional insttutes and enter'prises. The development of industry needs increasingly wide use of mathematical models and c o m p u t e r s in s c i e n t i f i c - r e s e a r c h and production p r a c t i c e .

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