The Russian president Vladimir Putin is an alpha male, there is no doubt.
I read a story today called, “The Secret American Subculture of Putin-Worshippers.”
Some Americans have been writing about Putin in admiration.
Can you blame them?
Putin rides horses through the Siberian forests.
Putin fights in judo competitions.
Putin feeds deer from his hand.
Putin drives a Formula 1 style race car.
Putin goes underwater in a submarine.
Putin measures the paws of a barely-knocked-out polar bear.
Putin plays hockey.
Putin hunts, skis, and swims (in mountain lakes).
Putin flies in a glider.
Okay, okay, you get the picture.
The man is like the Dos Equis “Most Interesting Man in the World,” mixed with James Bond (Putin used to be a KGB agent), AND Chuck Norris.
He’s one fascinating dude.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty not to like about the Russian prez. He makes fun of the US, ridicules our country on a regular basis, and points out most of the things we do as international folly.
And, history has shown that our US national interests often lie far apart from the Russian national interests.
But even I respect the guy and enjoy the heck out of reading about him.
In the frac sand testing world, the “Vladimir Putin” of frac sand testing is the crush resistance test.
First, the sand is weighed out in multiple samples to a very precise weight.
Next, the sand is carefully loaded into the crush cylinder using a pluviator. The pluviator spreads the sand (“makes it rain”) into a perfectly level surface, perfect for the crushing that is about to happen.
Then, the cylinder is loaded into the hydraulic press. We use a handsome Carver press to perform crush resistance testing here in our lab.
The cylinder is compressed up to the target stress, and then held for some time. The pressure is intense and incredible, and it creates * snap * crackle * pop * noises in the sand as it increases.
After the specified hold time, the sand is carefully taken to the sieve machine, where the percent weight of crushed sand is measured.
Then, the crushing is repeated again and again to develop a K value.
The K value is a pressure (in PSI) where the sand will start to produce over 10% in weight of crushed sand fines.
Good frac sand can go from 5K up to 9K and even higher for resin coated or ceramic proppants!
How high is President Putin’s K value? Off the charts – heh.
That’s all for now, comrade.
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