2025 ECerS - FIRE Summer School - Jacques Poirier

Modeling vs. laboratory and industrial experiments 

Prof. Jacques Poirier

University of Orléans, France

In addition to fundamental aspects, data mining and industrial assessments, advanced experimental and modelling methods provide essential information that helps guide refractory selection by determining the parameters governing wear and damage mechanisms and proposing optimisation of formulations or lining designs. Knowing the characteristics of refractories requires the availability of a full range of laboratory analysis resources and in-depth industrial expertise. The specificity of laboratory testing lies in the complexity of the many interrelated phenomena and the experimental difficulties associated with the high temperatures.

Major advances have been made in laboratory experiments and their interpretation over the last decade. The combination of high-performance experimental techniques, powerful numerical tools and modelling software provides access to information that was previously inaccessible through traditional direct measurements. In addition, thermal, thermo-mechanical and thermo-chemical modelling tools, as well as multi-physical and multi-scale modelling, provide a better understanding of the results.

This course presents an overview of the various advanced and in-situ experimental techniques and industrial instrumentation used to characterise refractories subjected to a high-temperature environment and of the numerical simulation tools: thermal, thermomechanical, thermochemical, hydrodynamic, multi-scale (macro-micro), multi-physics modelling, ...

A wide range of examples from the simplest to the most complex, concerning the steel industry, biomass energy recovery, waste treatments, … are presented,

• Formulation of refractories and microstructure design
• Corrosion of refractories by slags and gases
• Impact of service conditions on the performance of refractories
• Design of refractory masonry
• Durability of refractories submitted to thermo-chemico-mechanical coupling effects

These examples show that the combination of post-use observation, data analysis, modelling and testing offers new opportunities to the development of higher-performance refractories that will cut costs.

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