Survey of the Technical Condition of Arc Steelmaking Furnaces

Excerpt

One of the steps in performing an expert analysis of the safety of industrial equipment is diagnosing its structural elements or components by nondestructive testing methods. A thorough quality assessment usually requires that the equipment be shut down, disconnected from factory mains, and placed in a condition that ensures safe access to all of its parts and elements. However, such a shutdown frequently makes it impossible to obtain complete information on the equipment. For example, it precludes determining the thermal and mechanical loads and the effect of the equipment’s operating parameters on its technical state. The use of integral methods that involve nondestructive testing is promising for such situations. Three types of such testing are currently most often used: visual methods, acoustic methods, and thermal imaging. The method of acoustic emission (AE) has not yet come into practical use for metallurgical equipment, although attempts have been made to devise standards for AE testing of the structural elements of overhead traveling cranes, i.e., for three-dimensional structures. …