Nassima Yahmi1, Lucas B. Teixeira2, Alain Gasser1 and Eric Blond1
1) Univ. Orléans, Univ. Tours, INSA CVL, LaMé (EA 7494)
Polytech Orléans, 8 rue Léonard de Vinci, 45072 Orléans Cedex 2, France
{nassima.yahmi,alain.gasser,eric.blond}@univ-orleans.fr
2) RHI Magnesita
Praça Louis Ensch, 240, Cidade Industrial, Contagem, MG, CEP 32210-902, Brasil
lucas.teixeira@rhimagnesita.com
Keywords: Masonry without mortar, Thermo-mechanical modelling, Nonlinear behaviour, Periodical homogenisation, Steel ladle.
Abstract. A steel ladle, used in steel industry, is protected against the hot liquid steel it contains with a refractory lining often made of a masonry without mortar. To perform a thermomechanical finite element simulation of this ladle, it is necessary to take into account the gap existing between bricks. For this, a homogeneous material that has a behaviour equivalent to the masonry was identified (taking into account the joint state, open or closed) using a periodical homogenisation method. Due to the fact that the brick material has an elastic-viscoplastic behaviour at high temperature, it is necessary to model this nonlinear behaviour. The obtained masonry model was applied on a real ladle. This model shows the influence of the masonry design on the stresses in the steel shell and in the different refractory linings. It is possible to observe the progressive joint closure with temperature increase. It allows also to determine the evolution of stresses with time (relaxation).