Study on Influence of Thermal Expansion of the Solid Zinc in Hot Dip Galvanizing Bath by Elastic Analysis

-Stress of the Corner of Hot Dip Galvanizing Bath at Start-up Operation (1st Report) -

Abstract

At start-up operation of hot dip galvanizing baths to galvanize steel products, several leakage accidents of liquid zinc due to the damage in the vicinity of welded parts between side and bottom plates have been reported. Generally, liquid zinc is transferred to a new bath which has been heated adequately. In some of the accidents, however, it was found that transferred liquid zinc solidified in the bath heated inadequately. In order to determine a cause of the damage, this paper investigates the stresses of the bath which are caused by thermal expansion of solidified zinc heated continuously. At first, thermal distributions of the furnace and the bath are investigated by unsteady heat conduction analysis. Next, stresses of the vicinity of welded parts between bottom and side plates of the bath, are obtained by static analysis using the thermal distribution.