Erosion of Carbon Brick by Zinc in Hearth of Blast Furnace

抄録

The service life of a blast furnace (BF) is affected by the accumulation of zinc. To clarify the erosion mechanism of the carbon bricks, due to the zinc action, a dissection investigation of a commercial BF was carried out. The results show that the zinc content reaches up to 10.59% in the tuyere coke. The carbon bricks were sampled in a region characterized by high erosion levels and molten iron was detected. More interestingly, zinc was detected between the molten iron and the carbon bricks: the high zinc content of the bosh gas of the BF induces the zinc vapor to penetrate into the molten iron surface. The zinc vapor and the molten iron mix together, and zinc migrates from the molten iron into the carbon bricks. The thermodynamic behavior of zinc was analyzed and the volume expansion rate (56.94%) was calculated when Zn oxidizes into ZnO. The oxidation process may be the main reason behind the carbon brick erosion. The results show that molten zinc flows to the brittle layer of the carbon bricks, and finally solidifies, the carbon bricks become easy to break at the brittle layer. Countermeasures to reduce the harm of zinc have been suggested based on the zinc balance calculation.