Analysis of Crack Initiation Mechanism of Refractories for Blast Furnace Hearth by an Experimental Model

Abstract

Thermal stress analysis was made to study crack initiation mechanism of refractories (carbon block) at hearth of blast furnace.
In the analysis, 'Gap-link Model' was proposed to consider the effect of joint-mortar, stamp and shell which construct the boundary of carbon blocks. Calculated results show good agreement with those obtained by experiment of 1/4 scale testing hearth model furnace.
The main results obtained by 'Gap-link analysis' are as follows.
1 In heating process, adjacent carbon blocks come into partial contact with each other.
2 Radial tensile stress occurs at the end of contact region, and this tensile stress is considered to cause cracking at side faces of carbon blocks of the hearth model furnace.