Tapblock Refractory Wear Monitoring and Hearth Refractory Design Optimization in Metallurgical Furnaces

Monitoring the refractory wear in the tapblock is key to achieving extended tap-hole and furnace hearth life by informing operation and maintenance plans. The utility of a tapblock condition assessment system can be maximized by enhancing thermal monitoring, using an online monitoring system, data processing, and first-principles process modeling to develop a robust model of the tapblock condition. Another key factor impacting furnace campaign life is the refractory design, which requires balancing of competing priorities such as cost, performance, and constructability. Structural assessment of a hearth system can be used to quantify and optimize these features while identifying potential fatal flaws in a design, avoiding short campaign life. This assessment can be used to determine the impact of design changes, providing confidence in refractory design decisions. This paper will present examples of wear monitoring in the tap-hole region of a flash converting furnace and refractory design optimization for electric arc furnaces.