Boswell J., Alostaz M. & Pinheiro M. (2012) Insights into oil sands tailings development projects. In: Intl.
Oil
Sands Tailings Conference, IOSTC, Edmonton, AB, 2-5 December, 2012, pp. 73-81.
INSIGHTS INTO OIL SANDS TAILINGS DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
Jeremy Boswell, M.Eng., Michael Alostaz, Ph.D., P.Eng. and Mauricio Pinheiro, Ph.D.,
Thurber Engineering Ltd.
ABSTRACT
The nature of the Oil Sands industry places
somewhat unique demands on the design,
engineering and management of tailings
development projects, designs and field trials.
Among the many challenges faced by tailings
development projects are: scale of operations and
scale-up; public, environmental and regulatory
requirements; cross-functional demands and co-
ordination; seasonality, schedule and timelines;
managing continuous project changes and change
of scope, schedule and priority level.
Faced with increasing demands to deliver tailings
solutions, the implementation of tailings technology
development projects has become more and more
challenging, as a myriad of competing demands
require answers simultaneously, against a
backdrop of multiple variables.
In this paper the authors describe some of the
unique challenges to project managers in tailings
development, and offer some tools, insights and
approaches into successfully addressing these
demands, including: the development of project
objectives, potential remedies in considerations of
scale-up; proactive anticipation and nimble
response to client requirements; understanding,
experience, track record and continuity;
mobilization and efficient use of multidisciplinary
resources; decision-making, risk assessment and
technical review; cost tracking; timely and effective
communication; careful record-keeping and
document tracking; sustained team motivation and
attention to detail.
INTRODUCTION
Tailings technology development projects in the Oil
Sands over the past two decades have met with
considerable difficulties in achieving the objectives
which were originally set. Why is this so? What are
the pitfalls facing Oil Sands tailings technology
development, and how could they be better
handled?
The business, public and regulatory environment is
constantly changing for Oil Sands tailings.
Objectives which were entirely valid and appeared
most reasonable to even the most experienced
eye at the outset of the project, seem to become
dated and flawed in quite short time frames - in a
matter of months rather than years.
Faced with these and many other constraints to
delivery over the past five years, the authors have
developed a number of techniques and key
learnings which hold promise in enabling the timely
completion of tailings development projects within
budget.
THE TOP NINE CHALLENGES
1. Clear, Consistent Objectives
Perhaps we could introduce this section by reading
from Alice in Wonderland:
The Cat only grinned when it saw Alice. It looked
good- natured, she thought: still it had VERY long
claws and a great many teeth, so she felt that it
ought to be treated with respect.
`Cheshire Puss,' she began, rather timidly, as she
did not at all know whether it would like the name:
however, it only grinned a little wider. `Come, it's
pleased so far,' thought Alice, and she went on.
`Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to
go from here?'
`That depends a good deal on where you want to
get to,' said the Cat.
`I don't much care where--' said Alice.
`Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the
Cat.
`--so long as I get SOMEWHERE,' Alice added as
an explanation.
`Oh, you're sure to do that,' said the Cat, `if you
only walk long enough.'
Perhaps Lewis Carroll knew a thing or two about
the Oil Sands.
Some tailings development projects fail simply
because their purpose or objectives were never
defined, understood and agreed between the key
players at the outset. The risk of this all-too-
common occurrence can be greater if the project:
has multiple sponsors,
is of long duration (or conversely is being
done in a rush),
is highly technical,
is controversial or sensitive,
attempts to modify objectives on the fly,
or
attaches success to the development of
the technology, rather than to the quality
of the research.
Clearly the key is to define the purpose of the
project, set objectives and sub-objectives.
Prioritized objectives may be useful if trade-offs
are later required in order to make progress.
2. Scale up
One of the most daunting challenges encountered
in the development of Oil Sands tailings
technology, is that of scale up. Many simply avoid
the issue and the technology development often
fails, as a result.
Complexity
It is not simply because Oil Sands projects are
very large (copper and other tailings facilities are of
an equivalent size). Oil Sands tailings projects
have become very complex in recent years,
requiring specialist inputs in fields as diverse as
polymer chemistry, computational fluid dynamics,
unsaturated soil mechanics, rheology, two-phase
flow, environmental science and patent law.
Literature scan
In a brief review of published papers, and in
discussion with two tailings experts, the authors
found that little exists in literature as a guide.
Those limited references which were found, are
listed and described in brief, below:
Laminar and turbulent slurry flow regimes
Pirouz et al (2005) describe thickened tailings as a
viscous fluid with non-Newtonian behaviour in
which scale effects can be significant and are a
serious issue in the study of the phenomenon.
They conclude for tailings beach flow and
deposition:
Laminar sheet flow of slurry is always
associated with deposition.
Laminar flow cannot persist over long
distances since zone settling within the
flowing layer will lead to deposition after a
finite period of time.
Turbulence can overcome zone settling.
Thus for long distance travel the tailings
forms itself into a concentrated turbulent
channel.
It is postulated that the slope of the
channel will be steep enough for the
generated turbulence to just overcome
zone settling.
The overall beach slope of the stack is
therefore determined by the limiting
equilibrium channel slope which is
required for a particular tailings, to create
the required steady state turbulent total
transport flow condition in the self-formed
channels.
Based on full-scale, flow-through flume
testing, the following observations have
been made:
o The average velocity, the Froude
No., the velocity profile with depth,
and the density profile within the
flow are essentially constant for a
given slurry and do not vary with
flow rate.
o The critical channel slope for full
transport of the tailings, and
possibly the critical Reynolds
number, vary with flow rate.
Beach profile
Morris and Williams (1996) state:
The relationships between the profiles of full-size
and laboratory-model deltas are analysed using
the principles of kinematic similarity and a recent
theory of delta formation based on engineering
hydraulics. Measured profiles of full-size and
model coal-mine tailings deltas are compared and
the prediction of full-size profiles is discussed. It is
shown that the data derived from laboratory-model
deltas are insufficient to enable accurate prediction
of full-size delta profiles. Initial slope data or other,
equivalent data for the full-size delta are also
required.
Open channel flow hydraulics
Researchers in water engineering have long
employed models to investigate fluvial, estuarine
and marine flow behaviour to predict
sedimentation, scour and other phenomena, and
as tools in hydraulic engineering design.
Two dimensionless parameters often used in open
channel formulas, including those applied in the
prediction of tailings beach profiles, are the Froude
number:
(Fr = v g h)
and Reynolds number:
(Re = v h )
numbers, where v is the mean flow velocity, h is
the depth of flow, is the kinematic viscosity, and
g is the gravitational acceleration.
Flume tests, lubrication theory, surface tension
and momentum
Of the references cited in this memo, the work of
Fourie and Gawu (2010) and Morris and coworkers
best accounts for scalability issues in flume tests.
Fourie (2012) adds: At the flume scale we have
not resolved the potential interference of factors
such as surface tension or interference and
merging flow from multiple flumes or channels.
In fluid dynamics, lubrication theory describes the
flow of fluids (liquids or gases) in a geometry in
which one dimension is significantly smaller than
the others. Surface tension may then be
significant, or even dominant. Issues of wetting
and dewetting then arise. (Wikipedia, 2012)
Fourie adds further: Likewise, I am unaware of
any papers dealing specifically with this issue. The
issue of beach slope development must be
affected by scale up, especially when considering
the massively larger volumes (and therefore
momentum) involved.
Simms et al (2009) record:
The flume test visualization studies showed that
lubrication theory based equations described the
measured flows quite well. This theory may
partially explain the discrepancy between overall
deposition angles reported in the field and those in
the laboratory, as it clearly shows that this angle is
scale dependant. Testing at larger scales and with
more complex flow geometries is still required to
characterize the usefulness of this approach to
planning field deposition.
The use of lubrication theory based equations to
model the evolving geometry of paste tailings was
shown to be effective at the small scale. Tests at a
larger scale are required to examine its
applicability to the field. Many of the assumptions
of lubrication theory may not hold: certainly, at
some mines the velocity of the tailings as they exit
the pipe may be quite fast and the flow may be
turbulent, though the authors believe the flow
becomes laminar at some distance from the pipe,
and therefore the geometry will be largely
controlled by laminar flow. Another assumption
that may not hold true is the time independence of
rheological properties - it is possible that some
tailings may undergo significant settling and
dewatering as they flow. This fact may turn out to
be advantageous to mine operators, as it may be
possible to rely on settling enhanced by
desiccation through evaporation and the wicking
action of the underlying layer, to increase the yield
stress to that required for deposition. Though
possible, this kind of deposition would be complex
to control.
Pumping and pipeline systems
Cooke (2012) indicates: there are challenges with
scaling up pump and pipeline transport systems,
but I am not aware of any papers that have dealt
with this issue. It has been on my mind to write a
paper on the limitations of slurry pipeline transport
but I have not yet managed to find the time.
Scale up challenges in Oil Sands technology
development
In describing the potential for Retort-Based
Extraction (a possible non-water based extraction
method in which heat is used to vaporize any
water and generate pyrolysis of the bitumen, the
waste coke can be used as a fuel source for future
extraction and the remaining tailings are free of
bitumen and other hydrocarbons) as an alternative
tailings technology, the AIberta Innovates Oil
Sands Tailings Roadmap report (2012) laments
that:
Scale-up. This technology is still in the
development phase. To date, the largest pilot can
only process 1/30th of the amount of ore that is
normally produced in one train using current
extraction techniques.
And in reference to chemical alternative tailings
treatments:
In pursuing the development of chemical
amendments to Oil Sands tailings, the following
challenges should be considered:
High cost to evaluate chemical
amendments at pilot scale.
Uncertainty surrounding technical aspects
of the chemical amendments and a lack of
understanding of how they work.
Performance can be highly variable due to
changes in input chemistry which could
render results very lease specific.
Scale up - Quantity and cost of chemical
required for commercial scale operations
can be considerable.
The report does offer some solutions:
Develop a series of standard trials and evaluation
tools to evaluate the potential of chemical
amendments at first the lab scale then the pilot
scale. The evaluation criteria should be both short
and long term focused.
Empirical Similitude Method in other
engineering applications
In a recent Ph.D. thesis, Tadepalli (2009)
describes the difficulties encountered in many new
fields of engineering with modeling, scale-up, or
similitude. In describing the development of an
Empirical Similitude Method (ESM), Tadepalli
records:
Analyzing the behavior of a system with a network
of components requires multifaceted
approximations to reasonably simplify the
modeling effort. More often than not, a dominant
phenomenon is isolated that captures a major
segment of the system response without
compromising the integrity of the governing
dynamics of the associated physical process. Such
a simplification cannot be achieved with
considerable ease and requires numerous
approximations and assumptions.
Although describing the difficulties of modeling
engineering components in a typical manufacturing
setting, Tadepalli goes on to list a number of
factors which would give rise to the need to use a
more abstract model to model non-linear behaviour
(in a variety of scientific research fields), including:
1. Product/Model has distortions
2. Product has material non-linear responses
3. Product has multiple materials
4. Product has variable inputs and, initial and
boundary conditions
5. Product has space and time varying
properties
6. Product to model scaling is not uniform or
constant
7. Product behavior has no or complex
governing equation
8. Product has no realizable simple model;
9. Parameters have no realizable experiment
10. Experimentation has unrealistic time scale
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
One of newer and more promising fields of tailings
research is that of Computational Fluid Dynamics,
or CFD. Even in this field and perhaps starkly so,
the issue of scale-up is critical. Strategic
dependence on the use of Camp number (itself
dependent on pipe dimensions) is reflective of this
realization.
Potential Remedies for the Challenge of Scale
Up
How should these many challenges of scale up be
addressed? (Most practitioners appear to be
agreed that this is becoming a critical issue).
However, the solution is not simple and answers
are not readily to hand. The authors suggest the
following approach(es) as a starting point:
1. Review published literature for evidence of
scale dependence for the parameter(s)
under consideration.
2. Recognize which parameters are scale
dependent, and which ones are not (for
example, flume test width, momentum and
surface tension effects appear to be key in
considerations of scale).
3. Isolate the key parameters which are most
dependent on scale, researching their
influence on project parameters one at a
time.
4. Attempt to describe in fundamental
scientific terms or at the very least in
empirical terms, the nature of the influence
of each key scale dependent parameter.
5. Establish the minimum scale of pilot test
required to provide meaningful results, by
a combination of research, fundamental
analysis, modeling and lab scale testing.
6. Explore the potential for increased
understanding and characterization, by
successive modeling at gradually
increasing scales, while tracking the
change between stages from:
a. Lab (characterization) testing.
 b. Lab (batch and comparative)
testing.
c. Individual pilot testing.
d. Batches of pilot tests (in sequence
or in parallel).
e. Prototype testing.
7. Calculate, consider and compare the
relative costs, risks and benefits of field
testing at increasingly large scales, in
order to establish the most promising scale
of test, for the parameters under
investigation.
In implementing the steps above, the following
aspects should also be borne in mind:
Step 3 (above) may imply an uncoupled approach.
In reality, many parameters are not completely
independent of one another and isolation of
parameters from one another may be difficult. It
may then be useful to reconsider the choice of
parameters by selecting only those which are truly
independent from one another. In addition, some
parameter selection occurs as early as Step 1, and
may be influenced by the choice of approach or
test method.
The modelling of open channel flow has suggested
that in situations where multiple scale dependant
variables are present, there is no simple alternative
but to resort to larger prototypical models.
The project manager should resist the temptation
to over-accelerate development, thereby missing
development steps (by leaving out essential steps
in the sequence such as researching the
fundamentals, lab testing, pilot testing, etc.) or by
attempting to perform steps in parallel, rather than
sequentially.
Technical subject matter experts should remain
involved in all successive development stages, in
order to ensure that scale up effects are fully
considered and addressed during the project.
The use of an analogue fluid or material may be
considered, (such as is already used in the
modelling of fluid flow and mixing in pipelines, and
in association with CFD and elsewhere).
3. Skilled Leadership
Responsibility for tailings related decision-making
is now vested at most senior levels, as the
implications for Oil Sands operators are
substantial. This has placed a premium on
executives to be familiar with tailings matters and
to be well advised by specialist tailings engineers
at first hand.
Tailings projects also demand the focused
attention and commitment of senior engineering
leadership from the consultant, with rigorous
scrutiny at the Oil Sands Geotechnical Review
Board level.
Close teamwork and a relationship of trust
between client and consultant are fundamental.
This comes into sharp focus while pro-actively
responding to and managing the inevitable
changes which occur in projects of this nature,
sometimes arising out of a change in the big
picture. This is amplified in section 5 below.
4. Continuity, Skills and Teamwork
Working in a young and evolving industry such as
the Oil Sands is both exciting and challenging at
the same time. It offers tremendous opportunities
for learning; however it has its own unique ongoing
challenges that require input from experienced
specialists with a thorough working knowledge of
Oil Sands tailings and geotechnical engineering
and who know what will work and what will not,
without wasting time and resources on repeat work
and trials.
The challenge in the Oil Sands is the limited
number of those specialists who are available to
promptly respond to the demands of daily mining
operations. Also, it is commonplace to change the
responsibilities and roles of those specialists to
accommodate the needs of different areas of
operation. These challenges can be overwhelming,
allowing no time for creative thinking and
innovative solutions to be developed, and which
disrupt communications and project continuity.
These challenges can be lessened through the
efficient use of available resources, by assembling
teams of professionals with the necessary skill sets
to assist in responding to the tailings project
demands, and who can call in specialist expertise
when needed in a timely and effective manner.
The specialist needs to provide strategic guidance
to team members, to brief them in detail, to
measure their progress and to work closely with
them to ensure timely completion of agreed
deliverables within budget.
This will provide the Oil Sand industry with much
needed and well-trained teams of dedicated
professionals who have in-depth experience of
tailings projects, who promote continuity between
projects and who maintain effective two-way
communication within each project team, as well
as with outside specialists.
5. Big Picture Thinking
The unique challenges posed in Oil Sands tailings
in recent times have demanded with increasing
clamour the need for big picture thinking. The
turning point was perhaps the publication by the
ERCB on February 3, 2009 of Directive 074, and
more recent promising initiatives by industry and
government to develop common objectives for the
management and reclamation of Oil Sands tailings.
There is continued need to consider big picture
aspects during tailings engineering and
development projects, on account of ongoing
media, public and regulatory scrutiny and interest.
This was addressed in a paper two years ago at
this forum, Boswell (2010):
This paper suggests the view that the Big Picture
is managing the interface between:
Tailings
The Environment
The Public
Big Picture Thinking encompasses five
components:
Technical
Operational
Environmental
Legal
Public
This subject is expanded upon in the paper
referenced above, as well as in the references
cited in the paper at the time.
6. Pro-active Independent Research
There is an abundance of learning opportunities
which are yet to be captured, in order to enhance
the practice of Oil Sands tailings management.
Adopting a pro-active research philosophy will
allow the Oil Sands industry to shape its own
future and engineer its own opportunities, instead
of simply reacting on the spur of the moment to
challenges as they arise.
To promote healthy growth in Oil Sands tailings
management, it is insufficient to keep using the
same techniques and practices without recognizing
special opportunities when they come along. It is
important to then make conscious decisions based
on a sound understanding of the engineering
principles of tailings to create opportunities, and in
so doing encourage step-change advances in the
industry.
Pro-active research requires a clear understanding
of the industry operational, financial and regulatory
drivers. It should ask the questions: Where is the
industry going? Where should it go next? How will
it get there? Who will take it there, and in what
steps? The research clearly requires input and
feedback from the operators, regulators and
industry experts.
Creativity and the ability to generate alternative
responses to future challenges that will face
industry are key elements of pro-active research.
These elements require the input of independent
forward-thinking individuals who can mentally
generate and evaluate different options, and have
the freedom to explore unique solutions without
being restricted or forced to conform to corporate
boundaries or prevailing social norms and public
expectations. Academic and industry research
bodies need to be engaged in the process to
examine and verify the scientific principles of the
proposed solutions.
7. Scientific Critique and Rigorous
Review
A fundamental attribute of high quality research is
the capacity to invite and address the scrutiny of
scientific critique and peer review. This applies in
the Oil Sands no less.
At the same time however, the hard-nosed Oil
Sands tailings technology development champion
is aware that in order for continued progress to be
made, a little deafness to critics may be required
for project success.
The challenge is to be able to strike a balance and
in so doing to:
Differentiate valuable technical critique
from unfounded criticism.
 Identify fatal flaws in technology
development at the earliest possible
juncture, and to address them as a
priority.
Establish a project reputation which
maintains a readiness to receive critique.
A number of project structures and mechanisms
may be useful in allowing a project to receive
critique and thereby improve engineering
robustness and the chances of success:
Risk awareness, and a constant vigilance
for potential fatal flaws.
Anticipation and planning in advance for
contingencies and risks.
Regular use of risk assessment
techniques, such as a Probable Failure
Modes Analysis (PFMA), Value
Engineering, Quality Circles or SHERQ
there are many examples; a project
structure and schedule which allows for
these inputs in a timely manner.
All work produced by the team to be
subject to a rigorous internal review,
before being released.
A close working understanding between
consulting Team and Senior
Geotechnical Reviewers, and knowledge
of the requirements and function of the
Review team.
A publish-or-perish commitment to
sharing of research findings in journals of
high standing, specifically inviting
comment and critique.
8. Intellectual Property and
Contracts
Recent technology development in the Oil Sands
has struggled at times in dealing with the demands
of intellectual property rights, and delays
occasioned by the requirements of contract
negotiations.
There are remedies however:
Allow sufficient lead time at the outset of
the project for the development,
negotiation and agreement of contracts
dealing with necessary clauses for
intellectual property, patents, copyright,
non-disclosure and contractual remedies.
Be flexible (regarding information transfer,
deliverables, schedule, resourcing) in
addressing difficulties with intellectual
property.
Make use of sufficiently knowledgeable
specialists who are able to draw from wide
experience.
Build understanding and knowledge of the
particular demands of Oil Sands
technology development, when drafting
contracts; recognize the need for skills in
contract negotiation; bridge the gap
between engineers, attorneys and
accountants, in setting up project
structures and communication lines.
Recognize the circumstances under which
protection of intellectual property is
required and those instances where it is
not; avoid unnecessarily draconian
clauses (for example, indefinite protection
of rights in perpetuity).
Maximize the opportunities to improve co-
operation within the Oil Sands industry
presented by the formation of the Oil
Sands Tailings Consortium (OSTC), and
more recently Canadas Oil Sands
Innovation Alliance (COSIA). COSIA is an
alliance of Oil Sands producers focused on
accelerating the pace of improvement in
environmental performance in Canada's
Oil Sands through collaborative action and
innovation.
Proactive measures to encourage and
involve vendors and suppliers especially
those from outside of the Oil Sands.
9. Planning, Control and Discipline
There are a number of conventional project
management skills and disciplines, which when
systematically applied, are capable of delivering
even difficult projects on time and within budget.
They include:
1. Technical accuracy. Attention to detail and
technical accuracy in analysis and design;
use of skilled engineers experienced in
state-of-the-art analysis techniques and
software.
2. Control. Disciplined project management
and control of resources, schedule and
budget in a spirit of no surprises.
3. Documentation: Careful record keeping
and documentation of the design process
and results as they become available; a
philosophy of recording key events and
decisions.
 4. Reporting. An ongoing discipline of
summarizing and updating key
geotechnical information, results and
recommendations into a comprehensive
set of Design Memos, long before the
Final Report deadline.
5. Communication and record-keeping.
Keeping the whole team aware of
progress, and the changing needs of the
project; tracking the status of documents,
ensuring that the most current information
is continuously available.
CONCLUSIONS
The authors have presented nine challenges
encountered in the project management of Oil
Sands tailings technology development projects.
For each challenge they offer a few insights and
solutions towards addressing these challenges:
1. Clear, consistent objectives.
2. Scale up.
3. Skilled leadership.
4. Continuity, skills and teamwork.
5. Big Picture Thinking.
6. Pro-active, independent research.
7. Scientific critique and rigorous review.
8. Intellectual property and contracts.
9. Planning, control and discipline.
In addressing the particularly vexing challenge of
scale up (in Section 2), the authors have proposed
the following seven step solution:
1. Review published literature for evidence of
scale dependence for the parameter(s) under
consideration.
2. Recognize which parameters are scale
dependent, and which ones are not
3. Isolate the key parameters which are most
dependent on scale, researching their influence on
project parameters one at a time.
4. Attempt to describe in fundamental
scientific terms or at the very least in empirical
terms, the nature of the influence of each key scale
dependent parameter.
5. Establish the minimum scale of pilot test
required to provide meaningful results, by a
combination of research, fundamental analysis,
modeling and lab scale testing.
6. Explore the potential for increased
understanding and characterization, by successive
modelling at gradually increasing scales, while
tracking the change between stages
7. Calculate, consider and compare the
relative costs, risks and benefits of field testing at
increasingly large scales, in order to establish the
most promising scale of test, for the parameters
under investigation.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The inputs and advice of our colleagues in Thurber
(Dr. John Sobkowicz, Chris Workman, Trempess
Moore, Iain Gidley and Morgan Kofoed) and
elsewhere (Prof. Andy Fourie from the University
of Western Australia and Dr. Robert Cooke of
Paterson & Cooke, Denver, USA) is gratefully
acknowledged.
REFERENCES
AIberta Innovates Oil Sands Tailings Roadmap
Report (2012). Alberta Innovates Energy and
Environment Solutions OIL SANDS TAILINGS
TECHNOLOGY DEPLOYMENT ROADMAP
Project Report Volume 5 Component 4 Results
http://ai-ees.ca/media/7369/1906-
component_4_report.pdf
Boswell, J.E.S. (2010). Big Picture Thinking in Oil
nd
Sands Tailings. In: 2 OSTRF Conference.
Edmonton, Canada.
Cooke, Dr. R. (2012) Personal communication.
Fourie, Prof A.B. (2012) Personal communication.
Fourie, A.B. and Gawu, S.K.Y. (2010). The validity
of laboratory flume data for predicting beach
slopes of thickened tailings deposits. In: Paste
2010, pp. 241-253, Toronto, Canada.
Simms, P., Fisseha, B., Henriquez, J. and Bryan,
R. (2009). Desiccation and rheology in cyclic
surface deposition of gold paste tailings. In:
Tailings and Mine Waste 08. Taylor & Francis
Group, London.
Morris, P. H. and Williams, D. J. (1996). Prediction
of mine tailings delta profiles. Trans. Inst Min.
Metall. (Sect. A: Min. industry),
105: A63-A68.
Pirouz, B., Kavianpour, M.R., and Williams, P.
(2005). Thickened tailings beach deposition. Field
observations and full-scale flume testing. In: Paste
2005, 20-22 April, Santiago, Chile, pp. 53-72.
Tadepalli, S. (2009) Advances in Empirical
Similitude Method. Ph.D. Thesis, University of
Austin, Texas.

Web links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lubrication_theory

http://www.alice-in-
wonderland.net/books/1chpt6.html