Damage Diagnosis for High Temperature Coke-oven Chamber Walls

Abstract

Metallurgical coke is needed as reducing reagent and energy source in blast furnaces. Most of coke ovens in Japan have been working over 30 years and have become gradually decrepit. A coke oven consists of many coking chambers, and each chamber is 6 m high, 16 m long and 0.4m wide. Uneven damage at the chamber-wall surface such as brick erosion and carbon deposition disturbs production because the coke is pushed horizontally when discharged from the chamber. To diagnose the chamber wall which is constantly sustained at a high temperature, we have developed a water-cooling heat-resistance probe. Line scan cameras mounted in the probe obtain thermal images of the entire chamber-wall surfaces with high resolution. In addition, to measure topographical information of the wall, a laser light-section method combined with line-scan-camera imaging has been considered. It is emphasized that the diagnosis probe works under enormously severe conditions, such as at a temperature of over 1000°C and inside a width of only 0.4m. Clarifying the appearance of chamber-wall damages in operating aged coke ovens, we proposed the index relating unevenness of a chamber-wall surface to pushing load. The index is utilized for the guidance enabling effective repairs of damaged oven walls.