Monitoring erosion and skull profile in blast furnace hearth

In the blast furnace process, the hearth is subject to chemical and physical erosion. A mathematical model for the prediction of the refractory material thickness in the wall and bottom area of the hearth (MUSA) is presented. By combining online reading of temperatures and historical data, the erosion profile in the hearth lining and the thickness of any skull can be calculated by the model. For the prediction of erosion and skull profile, a heat conduction problem was considered: numerical results are presented and discussed.