Browsing by Author "Toledo, Nagore"
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Item A novel procedure for the evaluation of new refractories for aluminium furnaces(Cenertec, 2015-04) Vicario, Iban; de Landía, Leonor; Mendizabal, Gorka; Toledo, Nagore; Anglada, Eva; Rodriguez, PatxiRefractory materials for aluminium industry are designed to be resistant to different degrees of thermal, mechanical and chemical wear. The refractory wall thickness reduction during service life increases the heat losses through walls, decreasing the thermal efficiency of the furnace. Last developments are focused on obtaining refractories with better performance and improved insulation properties. On this regard, a novel procedure has been developed to compare the thermal and chemical performance of different refractories. This procedure includes comparing the resistance of the refractory to molten aluminium, determining corundum and cracks appearance, and measuring the internal and external wall temperatures of a testing furnace using thermography. These temperature measurements make possible to estimate the wall thermal conductivity together with its evolution in time and also validate its simulation modelling in order to be used in future furnace designs. Two refractories have been tested by this procedure for comparative purposes; a commercial alumina castable and an improved alumina castable with better insulation propertiesItem Rapid simulation models for aluminium furnaces design(2017-07-04) Anglada, Eva; Vicario, Iban; de Landia, Leonor; Mendizabal, Gorka; Toledo, Nagore; CIRMETAL; PROMETALThe minimisation of energy consumption in aluminium metal casting industries requires an appropriate design of the furnaces to reduce as possible the heat losses through the walls. Detailed simulation models have been developed that allow the in-depth study of furnace behaviour, but these models are too complex and slow for some industrial necessities. To make possible a fast evaluation during preliminary phases more agile models are needed. This agility may be achieved by simplified models, but the results could be affected by a lack of accuracy. The work presented hereafter shows how the steady state analysis of the furnace walls with simplified models of finite elements may give sufficiently accurate and fast results. The simulation models have been validated against experimental results, thus confirming their ability to adequately reproduce the thermal behaviour of the walls of several furnaces regardless of their composition or heating system.