Present article is dedicated to the analysis of problems of the oil industry of Russia and is aimed at the development of a mechanism for its growth. The research is based on the results of the economic analysis that has been carried out on the basis of statistical data from the government and major oil companies as well as on the basis of analytical reports of independent companies. Among the main identified problems of the oil refining industry it can be mentioned following problems: insufficient volumes of raw material processing, lack of refinery capacities, remote location of oil extraction and refinery plants from the end users and unbalanced tax system in the industry. Specified problems are being solved on the level of companies and the state that brings results, however, there is no clear development mechanism of the oil refining industry so far. The authors suggest a development scheme for the Russian oil refining industry implying cooperation of businesses and the state. The implementation of the proposed scheme will ensure the investments for the extension of production and obtaining a product with a higher added value as well as increasing the competitiveness of the Russian oil products.

This work presents results of experimental researches of influence of various hightemperature thermomechanical treatment (HTMT) modes in 35KhGSA steel – material applied in rock-destroying cutters – on hardness and wear rate for the most common abrasive rock in mining operations – sandstone. It has been found out that HTMT leads to increase of steel hardness and reduction of wear rate compared to heat treatment applied at manufacture of cutters. The maximal increase of hardness (by 23%) and reduction of wear rate (by 38%) corresponds to the mode of distortion accumulation of ∼1,5 at 900 °С at water quenching and tempering at 230 °C. A conclusion that thermomechanical treatment is an effective way to increase the wear resistance of steels applied in the conditions of abrasion wear has been drawn.

This paper presents a numerical simulation of powder sintering. The numerical model presented in this paper uses the discrete element method, which suggests that the material can be modeled by a large set of discrete elements (particles) of a spherical shape that interact with each other. A methodology has been developed to determine the DEM parameters of bulk materials based on machine vision and a neural network algorithm. The approach is suitable for obtaining the exact values of the DEM parameters of the investigated bulk material by comparing the visual images of the material’s behavior at the experimental stand in reality and in the model. Simulation of sintering requires an introduction of cohesive interaction between particles representing interparticle sintering forces. Numerical sintering studies were supplemented with experimental studies that provided data for calibration and model validation. The experimental results have shown a significant capability of the designed numerical model in modeling sintering processes. Evolution of microstructure and density during sintering have been studied under the laboratory conditions.