Porosity and refractory corrosion

JSGT 1957 V41 T318-T330

It is generally assumed that there is a relationship between the corrosion of refractories and their porosity but few actual measurements have been made. Whilst manufacturing mullite tank blocks samples of various porosities became available and were corroded in four different full-scale glass-melting furnaces. It was found that there was a linear relationship between corrosion at the flux line and porosity of the block and also that the wear on a block of 9% porosity was about half that on one of 22% porosity. Tests showed that a similar relationship could be obtained in a static laboratory corrosion test.

T. S. Busby