Salamander Tapping Position by Using an Acousto Ultrasonic Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) Techniques
(Room 207A)
09 May 17
4:30 PM
-
5:00 PM
Tracks:
Blast Furnace Hearth
Hatch NDT Group has been utilizing the Acousto Ultrasonic-Echo (AU-E) technique to identify the exact transition of the hearth refractory to the bottom slab. This technique has been used to facilitate locating the hearth and bottom skull condition and position prior to the salamander tapping in several blast furnaces. In addition, a more robust determination of the salamander tapping position can be performed when using numerical modeling of the hearth based on available thermocouple information in combination with the AU-E measurements. This dual data correlation provides an increased understanding of the hearth refractory and skull condition that without can result in high risk guessing with high potential for failure. This paper discusses experiencees with non-intrusive and efficient methods for identifying salamander tapping locations.