Experimental and numerical investigation of a pilot steel ladle

Abstract

Masonry refractory linings are commonly employed in industrial vessels to protect against extreme working environments. Mortarless refractory masonry is frequently used in the working lining of steel ladles to contain the molten steel and limit heat losses. During operation, such masonry lining undergoes high thermo-mechanical loads, primarily due to the complex thermal and mechanical boundary conditions. Therefore, large-scale experiments are required to characterise the behaviour of such structures, leading up to their optimisation. This work presents a novel approach for the experimental characterisation of refractory linings using a laboratory-scaled pilot steel ladle. This 3D pilot model is a scaled representation of a ladle that includes all the linings as an industrial ladle. The pilot ladle was tested under transient thermal loads, and its behaviour was assessed through thermocouples, strain gauges and DIC (digital image correlation). The experimental observations describe a complex and nonlinear global behaviour of the pilot ladle due to thermal gradient, creep of the refractories and damage. Finally, the results obtained from these experiments were used to validate numerical models using a 3D meso-modelling approach. The numerical simulations revealed a good agreement with the experimental outcome that can further be employed to investigate and design an industrial steel ladle.