An integrated heated member management system includes: a cable module at least partially inserted into a heated member; a measurement module for measuring information generated in the cable module; an integrated management module for identifying a degree of damage to the heated member by a molten material on the basis of the information measured by the measurement module, to generate management information relating to the heated member; and a local terminal for receiving, from the integrated management module, the management information relating to the heated member.

The present invention relates to a system and a method for measuring the thickness of refractories comprising a heat flux measuring device (10) for measuring the flow of heat flowing from a hot face to a cold face of the refractory, a core (11) surrounded by a thermally insulating jacket (12) comprising, in which the core (11) conducts, between a first (11a) and a second (11b) face, heat from the hot face of the refractory to the cold face of the refractory; and a measuring apparatus (20) configured to: continuously measure the temperature on the first face of the core and on the second face of the core; determining the heat flux flowing through the heat flow measuring device (10) and determining the thickness of the refractory material by means of equivalent thermal conductivity of the refractory material.

An integrated heated member management system includes: a cable module at least partially inserted into a heated member; a measurement module for measuring information generated in the cable module; an integrated management module for identifying a degree of damage to the heated member by a molten material on the basis of the information measured by the measurement module, to generate management information relating to the heated member; and a local terminal for receiving, from the integrated management module, the management information relating to the heated member.

A refractory unit for lining a high temperature vessel includes a refractory body formed from a refractory material. The refractory body has an upper main surface, a lower main surface, an inner surface configurable to face a high temperature chamber, an outer surface configurable to face away from the high temperature chamber, a first side surface and a second side surface. An elastic member is attached to the outer surface.

Many substantially identical refractory bricks are assembled into completed horizontal ring rows neatly nested into laterally curved copper stave coolers surrounding the ring. Each brick locks into horizontal channels between pairs of parallel horizontal protruding ribs on the hot faces of the stave coolers. Every stave cooler is provisioned with a full covering of the refractory bricks after the stave cooler is mounted inside a corresponding steel containment shell. None of the refractory bricks are permitted to be finished bridging between adjacent stave coolers in the same horizontal row. Each brick is installed in their respective stave coolers with crushable or deformable mortar filling the channels. Each brick hooks a toe just under and into an upper of the pair of horizontal ribs, and then rotates in down with favorably oriented and directed earth's gravity to stay in place at least until a next upper row of bricks in a superior horizontal ring lock them in a second way.

Many substantially identical refractory bricks are assembled into completed horizontal ring rows neatly nested into laterally curved copper stave coolers surrounding the ring. Each brick locks into horizontal channels between pairs of parallel horizontal protruding ribs on the hot faces of the stave coolers. Every stave cooler is provisioned with a full covering of the refractory bricks after the stave cooler is mounted inside a corresponding steel containment shell. None of the refractory bricks are permitted to be finished bridging between adjacent stave coolers in the same horizontal row. Each brick is installed in their respective stave coolers with crushable or deformable mortar filling the channels. Each brick hooks a toe just under and into an upper of the pair of horizontal ribs, and then rotates in down with favorably oriented and directed earth's gravity to stay in place at least until a next upper row of bricks in a superior horizontal ring lock them in a second way.

In a monolithic refractory, in terms of a proportion in 100 mass % of a refractory raw material having a grain size of 8 mm or smaller, an amount of Ca.sub.XSr.sub.1XAl.sub.2O.sub.4 (where, 0X0.5) is 0.5 mass % or more and 10 mass % or less, and a polyvalent metal salt of oxycarboxylic acid is 0.05 mass % or more and 1.0 mass % or less.

A smelting vessel includes a plurality of heat pipes (21) positioned in a refractory lining of at least a part of the hearth (9) for cooling at least a part of the refractory lining. At least one of the heat pipes includes (a) a liquid phase of a heat transfer fluid, typically water, in a lower section of the heat pipe and (b) a vapor phase of the heat transfer fluid, typically steam, in an upper section of the heat pipe. The heat pipe also includes a vent to allow vapour phase to escape from the heat pipe to reduce the pressure or the temperature within the heat pipe when the vapour pressure or the temperature in the heat pipe exceeds a predetermined threshold pressure or temperature.

A smelting vessel includes a plurality of heat pipes (21) positioned in a refractory lining of at least a part of the hearth (9) for cooling at least a part of the refractory lining. At least one of the heat pipes includes (a) a liquid phase of a heat transfer fluid, typically water, in a lower section of the heat pipe and (b) a vapor phase of the heat transfer fluid, typically steam, in an upper section of the heat pipe. The heat pipe also includes a vent to allow vapour phase to escape from the heat pipe to reduce the pressure or the temperature within the heat pipe when the vapour pressure or the temperature in the heat pipe exceeds a predetermined threshold pressure or temperature.

A blast furnace control system may include a hardware processor that generates a deep learning based predictive model for forecasting hot metal temperature, where the actual measured HMT data is only available sparsely, and for example, measured at irregular interval of time. HMT data points may be imputed by interpolating the HMT measurement data. HMT gradients are computed and a model is generated to learn a relationship between state variables and the HTM gradients. HMT may be forecasted for a time point, in which no measured HMT data is available. The forecasted HMT may be transmitted to a controller coupled to a blast furnace, to trigger a control action to control a manufacturing process occurring in the blast furnace.