This is the monthly report for the Hanford Laboratories Operation. Metallurgy, reactor fuels, physics and instrumentation, reactor technology, chemistry, separation processes, biology, financial activities, employee relations, laboratories auxiliaries, radiation protection, operation research, inventions, visits, and personnel status are discussed. This report is for January 1957.

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Abstract: An experimental investigation was conducted to establish the burnout limit of liquid diphenyl for various flow conditions.

Memorandum presenting a study of the effect of oxide-depositing fuels on engine starting, operation, and performance by using a modified production turbojet engine operated using a trimethyl borate azeotrope as a fuel. Results regarding boric oxide deposition, engine operation and performance, effect of turbine-inlet temperature, and dissipation of boric oxide deposits are provided.

Report presenting testing of a modified production turbojet engine using a trimethyl borate azeotrope as a fuel. Operation with this fuel for 100 minutes produced a 2-percent deterioration in engine speed and only a 1-percent increase in combustor total-pressure loss with the best engine configuration investigated. Results regarding boric oxide deposition, engine operation and performance, effect of turbine-inlet temperature, and dissipation of boric oxide deposits are provided.

Engine dynamics were investigated for supercritical operation of the ram jet at Mach 2.75 over a range of simulated altitudes from 68,000 to 82,000 feet. Indicial-and frequency-response tests were conducted with fuel flow as the input variable. For a wide range of operating points, the response of static or total pressure to fuel flow consisted of a dead time followed by a response form that generally approximated a linear, first-order, lead-lag. The dead time varied significantly only with distance from the combustion zone. The rise ratio and the time constant of the lead-lag function were nearly independent of the pressure sensed.

Memorandum presenting a mechanism for the thermal decomposition of sodium, lithium, beryllium, magnesium, aluminum, and boron alkyls and for the reverse reaction, the addition of olefins to metal hydrides. The reactions are shown to be nonradical and to probably proceed through a cyclic intermediate.