Two new refractory materials have been developed for use in molten aluminum contact applications that exhibit improved corrosion and wear resistance leading to improved thermal management through reduced heat losses caused by refractory thinning and wastage. The development of these materials was based on an understanding of the corrosion and wear mechanisms associated with currently used aluminum contact refractories through physical, chemical, and mechanical characterization and analysis performed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the University of Missouri, Rolla Rolla (UMR), along with their industrial partners, under the ITP Materials project ''Multifunctional Metallic and Refractory Materials for Energy Efficient Handling of Molten Metals.'' Spent castable refractories obtained from a natural gas-fired reverberatory aluminum alloy melting furnace were analyzed, leading to identification of several refractory degradation mechanisms and strategies to produce improved materials. The newly developed materials have been validated through an R&D industrial trial.
Current and future research goals in our laboratories include the study of the attack of glass-contact refractories and of crown refractories in glass tank melters, under either air-gas or oxyfuel conditions. There is an emphasis on evaluation and characterization of critical parameters of commercial refractories such as microstructure, porosity and mechanical properties. A second focus is the evaluation of the performance of refractory alternatives to traditional crown and superstructure refractories including their physical aspects, crown design, and joint quality.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.