Temperature measurement – the main task to ensure technological processes in steel industry. Towards the 200 years anniversary of the thermoelectric effect discovery by T.I. Zeebeck

Abstract

Temperature is one of the basic parameters in the life of the mankind and particularly in steel industry. After discovery of thermoelectric effect by T.I. Zeebeck and creation of the thermoelectric thermometer, production of steel was transformed from an art into a highly qualified labor. It was shown, that thermocouples have considerable benefits comparing with other temperature sensors: radiation pyrometers and resistance thermometers. Items of temperature measurement in steel industry considered. Methods of temperature control in technological processes of steel industry qualified. Some results of studies of industrial heating furnaces of hot-rolling mills, chamber, bell-type and continuous furnaces presented. The studies were accomplished at the Department “Thermal physics and ecology of metallurgical production”, in the center “ENERGOMET”, at the enterprise “Innovations and energy saving”, in the laboratory “Heat engineering measurements in metallurgy” of NITU “MISiS”, in OJSC “Obninsk thermoelectric company”. Examples of temperature measurement in heating and thermal furnaces of rolling mills presented. Design of a thermometer for temperature measurement in a toxic or highly explosive atmosphere presented, based on a method of pulsating convection thermometry of a gas, developed at MISiS. The device ensured accurate enough gas temperature measurement in operating furnaces and enabled to organize a correct supply of a protective gas into the heating chamber, exposure and its effective motion in the working area resulting in increasing intensity of decarburization process of transformer steel in tower furnaces.