A new approach for the determination of thermal shock resistance of refractories

Abstract

The life cycle of refractory materials is affected by a variety of factors. Depending on the type of industrial application, they must be resistant to extreme temperatures, mechanical loads, chemical corrosion and large temperature changes when in contact with molten metal and slag. Correct estimation of durability is important in the choice of material and for determining the service life of individual parts of the structure. Together with the expected maintenance cycles, this influences the choice of material for optimum structural design. In practice, refractories are very often subject to large temperature variations and thermal cycling. Thermal shock is thus a predominant factor that shortens the service life of monolithic refractory products. Therefore, the main objective of refractory manufacturers is to research and develop refractories with higher resistance to thermal shock and to analyse, compare and evaluate them effectively. This paper deals with the issue of testing the resistance of refractory materials, respectively analysis and comparison of standard and new test methods for accelerated thermal shock resistance testing.