The Advancement of a Non-Destructive Testing Method for Cooling Staves Thicknesses
(Room 207B)
09 May 17
10:00 AM
-
10:30 AM
Tracks:
Equipment & Maintenance
At the bosh and stack levels of blast furnaces, cooling staves are subject to severe abrasive wear. Traditionally, ultrasonic techniques (UT) cannot be used to measure the remaining stave thickness due to the multi-layer nature of the furnace. In 2013, there was a breakthrough in the non-destructive testing methods for stave thicknesses. A technique known as the Low Frequency Pulsed Ultrasound (LFPU) was developed. The technique was tested on a medium-size furnace on both cast-iron and copper staves. The measurement results were verified by the conventional UT tests at designated copper rod inserts. Soon after this pilot project, there have been requests for the LFPU measurements from around the globe. This paper shows the comparison of the conventional UT tests and the advanced LFPU tests. A case study of the inspection performed at Novolipetsk MK is addressed.