Authors have developed a spherical shaped container having the internal wall constructed with ceramic hollow units for transferring molten aluminum. This newly designed container was expected to provide light weight and high heat retaining properties, compared with current cylindrical containers having the internal wall made of castable refractories. In this report, a pentagonal hollow unit was designed on the basis of solid geometry and thermal fluid analysis. Thus designed RBSN (Reaction-bonded Silicon Nitride) pentagonal hollow units were fabricated by slip casting forming processes using silicon powder slurry and reaction sintering processes in nitrogen gas. The evaluation of thermal conductance of the units showed that the RBSN pentagonal hollow units reduced the heat emission and the weight, compared with one example of the current castable refractories.

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