Correlation between changes in mechanical strength and damping of a high alumina refractory castable progressively damaged by thermal shock

Abstract

Resistance to thermal shock damage is an important characteristic in refractory materials, since it determines their performance and service life in many applications. Therefore, the use of more sensitive techniques is desirable to improve the evaluation of thermal shock damage and monitoring of nucleation and propagation cracks and microcracks.The aim of this work was to evaluate the potential of damping change characterization to quantify thermal shock damage and to estimate the retained mechanical strength in complement to the dynamic Young's modulus test. Variations in damping and retained Young's modulus and their correlation with the mechanical strength of a high alumina refractory castable were evaluated at different thermal shock temperatures and number of cycles. The changes in damping were proportional to the retained mechanical strength, similarly to the retained Young's modulus. Changes in damping were also detected which were not indicated by the Young's modulus measurements.