TECHNICAL PAPER

A New Approach for the Wear Failure Risk of Copper Stavesin Blast Furnaces

Mustafa Esmer1• Hamdi Alper Ozyigit2

Received: 8 March 2016 / Accepted: 5 January 2017 / Published online: 10 February 2017

� The Indian Institute of Metals - IIM 2017

Abstract Copper staves are widely used as cooling sys-

tems for blast furnaces. Since the inside wall of the fur-

naces are completely covered with copper staves, the

failure of the system plays a significant role for premature

blast furnace relining. Especially the bosh area is the crit-

ical part of blast furnaces because it faces high heat load.

The damage to the bosh area directly affects the service

period of BF’s. The lifetime of furnaces can be prolonged

considerably by preventing the premature damage of this

section. For this purpose, a new approach has been intro-

duced to define the premature risk factor of copper staves

based on design and operation parameters. The data of 34

different blast furnaces obtained from the members of

World Steel Assoc. are applied to this new approach to

calculate the premature risk factors. The results are recor-

ded and analyzed according to service lifetime and actual

wear situations of copper staves. Finally, all these analyzes

show that the new approach, which is represented in this

paper can be a new design check parameter for blast fur-

naces and a practical solution to define the premature wear

risk of copper staves. Therefore, blast furnace designers

and users can extend the blast furnace lifetime by using this

new approach resulting in high economic benefits.

Keywords Life extension � Life prediction �Abrasive wear � Blast furnaces

Abbreviations

BF Blast furnace

PCI Pulverized coal Injection

BWF Bosh wear factor

BWFp Bosh wear factor pressure function

BWFv Bosh wear factor velocity function

Cu Copper

bbosh Bosh angle (�)bstack Stack angle (�)/belly Belly diameter (m)

Dt Throat diameter (m)

Ht Throat height (m)

Hs Stack height (m)

Hbelly Belly height (m)

Hbosh Bosh height (m)

q Density of the burden material tm3

� �

Abosh Bosh surface area (m2)

Abelly Belly cross sectional area (m2)

Avg.Vbelly Average velocity factor of the burden material

at belly mday

� �

Md Total charged daily burden material tday

� �

M1 Total burden weight between middle of the

bosh to the stock line (t)

V1 Total burden volume between middle of the

bosh to the stock line (m3)

uWorking Productivity (working volume) tm3�day

� �

VWorking Working volume (m3)

1 Introduction

The blast furnace process is a widely used conventional

method for producing pig iron. Sintered iron ores, mixed

with a proportion of rubble ore, metallurgical coke and

& Hamdi Alper Ozyigit

hamdialper@beun.edu.tr

1 Engineering Department, Eregli Iron and Steel Works Co.,

67330 Eregli, Zonguldak, Turkey

2 Mechatronics Engineering Department, Engineering Faculty,

Bulent Ecevit University, 67100 Zonguldak, Turkey

123

Trans Indian Inst Met (2017) 70(8):2137–2145

DOI 10.1007/s12666-017-1035-8

fluxes are charged from the top of the blast furnace while

blast hot air, O2, and pulverized coal injection (PCI) are fed

to the lower part of the blast furnace. After the chemical

reactions occur inside the furnace, iron ore is chemically

reduced and physically converted to liquid ‘‘pig iron’’

(4–6% C, 1–1,5% Si) which is suitable for subsequent

refining to steel [1, 2]. In other words, the natural abrasive

raw materials descend and soften due to high temperature

while hot gasses including solid particles ascend through

the burden material and along the wall.

The main parts of the furnaces are the body, top feed

system, cast house, hot blast stoves, gas evacuation and

cleaning system, slag granulation and rawmaterial handling.

A modern blast furnace consists of three layers in the radial

direction. Steel shell for supporting mechanical and thermal

loads, cooling systemprotecting the refractory and steel shell

and refractory consisting of bricks or blocks [3]. A blast

furnace has six main parts in the vertical direction; hearth,

bosh, belly, stack, throat and top cone as shown in Fig. 1.

The hearth is the bottom part of the blast furnace where

the liquid pig iron and the slag are accumulated. The shape

of the hearth is like a crucible, and the liquid pig iron is

tapped when it reaches certain level. The bosh area is the

hottest part of the blast furnace where the flame tempera-

ture is more than 2000 �C. The belly has a cylindrical

shape and has the widest diameter which is located

between upper bosh and lower part of the stack. The stack

is a truncated upright cone between belly and throat area.

The narrowest cylindrical part above the stack is the throat.

The highest part of the furnace proper is the top cone where

gas offtakes and charging equipments are located.

In the hearth part of a blast furnace, spray, cassette or

stave cooling systems are used as cooling methods. On the

other hand, dense copper plate-refractory combination or

stave cooling systems are preferred in the bosh, belly and

stack sections. At the throat, stave cooling system is used if

it is necessary.

In recent years, many stave problems have been reported

after progressive increase in PCI rates in the blast furnaces

[4]. PCI rate is used to replace equivalent metallurgical

coke rate to decrease cost since PCI unit price is less than

that of unit metallurgical coke. However, the usage of high

PCI rates moves highest temperature point in the bird’s

nest from the center of the blast furnace to the wall which

increases heat load on the bosh area and makes the

accretion layer thinner or destroys it as well.

Accretion layer is necessary to prevent the stave from

wear of burden material. Another factor responsible for the

increased copper stave premature failure is the stave body

temperature. If the temperature of the hot face of the stave

exceeds 250 �C and if there is no refractory in front of the

stave, copper becomes softer which causes increasing wear

rate due to movement of the burden material.

Premature wear of stave in the bosh area is the main

reason of relining of the blast furnace. That problem also

causes production loss and higher operation cost. Wu et al.

Fig. 1 Blast furnace main

sections and dimensions

2138 Trans Indian Inst Met (2017) 70(8):2137–2145

123

[5] states that the lower part of the furnace faces high heat

load and this part has a great importance for the blast

furnace service lifetime compared to the upper parts of the

blast furnace. However, increasing PCI rates causes addi-

tional heat load on to the bosh wall. As bosh section has a

critical importance for the lifetime and productivity of the

blast furnace, many researchers, scientists, and companies

are working to prolong the life of the bosh area copper

staves.

There are many reasons for the failure of copper staves

such as; bending problem, no further contact between stave

and cooling pipe, welding failures between stave and

cooling pipe, and wear of the burden material. Many

researchers claim that the primary reason for the premature

failure of the copper staves is abrasion wear. Lungen et al.

[6] made a physical and microstructural analysis of the

refractory from the bosh part of a blast furnace (Taranto

No. 5 Italian iron and steel producer). The results clearly

show that this material is almost unchanged, so the wear in

this zone mainly depends on a mechanical abrasion. Cegna

et al. [4] focused on the root causes of the serious prema-

ture stave failures of the blast furnace (Ternium Siderar

Blast Furnace No:2) as shown in Fig. 2. They inserted a

copper rod to analyze the failure whether it is due to ero-

sion or abrasion (Fig. 2 right). The hot face appearance of

the copper rod clearly shows that the failures are due to

abrasion of descending burden material.

Laar and Engel state that the failures of the copper

staves are due to abrasion wear as shown Fig. 3 [7]. Shaw

et al. [8] state that the failure of copper staves which is

principally from abrasion wear can lead to an early reline

with a high cost. Zhang et al. [9] determined that by the

decrease of the bosh angle, the pressure on the bosh wall

increases. They claim that the increase in the wall pressure

accelerates the abrasion of the refractory by the friction

force between particles and wall. Zhang [10] in another

article points out that the cooling system is damaged by

abrasion wear which is due to lack of accretion layer on the

hot face. He asserts that reduction of bosh angle has a

negative effect on the ascension of the gasses, heat flux

attack, and accretion formation capability. Crudu et al. [3]

studied all the wear mechanisms in the blast furnace and

stated that one of the most significant wear mechanism is

abrasion due to burden material descend and moving coke

granulations in the raceway. Yeh et al. [11] categorized the

main causes of the copper stave failures into two; abrasion

wear of descending burden material and high heat load on

the hot face. They have stated that accretion layer is nec-

essary to protect the stave from failure. Wu and Cheng [12]

emphasized that if the accretion layer is lost, the stave faces

high heat load which decreases the lifetime of the blast

furnaces. Xie and Cheng [13] pointed out that due to lack

of the accretion layer in front of the stave, staves face high

heat load. Cheng et al. [14] stated that an accretion layer

with an optimum thickness is necessary for long blast

furnace service-life.

2 Materials and Methods

The blast furnace is supposed to be a complex iron-making

process which includes more than 30 chemical reactions

and changing phases of various materials. So, the blast

Fig. 2 Severe premature wear

of copper staves in the blast

furnace (Ternium Siderar No:2)

(left), The copper test rod to

check the wear cause and rate

which is used in the blast

furnace (right) [4]

Fig. 3 Copper stave wear due to abrasion [7]

Trans Indian Inst Met (2017) 70(8):2137–2145 2139

123

furnace is regarded as one of the most complex industrial

reactors [15]. Because of this complexity, it is tough to find

the relationship between premature wear of copper staves

(while taking into account all blast furnace design) and

operation parameters. So, it is necessary to present a new

approach proved by experimental data by focusing the

most important blast furnace (BF) parameters. For this

purpose, a new method called Bosh wear factor (BWF) is

introduced to determine the risk of premature failure of the

copper staves by using geometric and operation parameters

of a blast furnace.

2.1 Background of BWF Approach

Three main effects are considered in the BWF approach;

the formation of the protection layer in front of the stave,

the heat load on the stave and mechanical abrasion effect of

the burden material. Two new functions are derived to

formulate the approach by using blast furnace design and

operation parameters. They are Pressure Function (BWFp)

and velocity function (BWFv). So, BWF is determined as

follows:

BWF ¼ BWFp � BWFv ð1Þ

Totally34blast furnacedata, supplied byWorldSteel, have

been used to compare the BWF values and actual wear status.

2.2 BWFp- Pressure Function of BWF

The analysis and investigations conducted in this paper clearly

show that the increase of wall pressure on the bosh surface

decreases the risk of the premature wear of copper staves even

though it is asserted contrary to some studies in the literature

[9, 10]. However, as seen in Fig. 4, no wear at the high wall

pressure zones of the bosh section provide evidence that the

higher pressure on bosh leads to less abrasionwear on the bosh

surface [4].Because peakwall pressures occur at the transition

sections of silos during steady discharge as seen in Fig. 5 [16].

The theoretical calculations related to wall pressure are veri-

fied by experimental studies and DEM analysis as shown in

Fig. 6 [9, 16, 17].

A blast furnace can be supposed to be a silo with a

steady discharge manner. There is a fix cohesive zone layer

and the liquid iron drops to the hearth from this layer

steadily and continuously. Our assumption which states:

‘‘if the wall pressure on the bosh area surface increases, the

risk for the premature wear decreases’’ can easily be cor-

roborated with any furnace which has less or no abrasion

wear compared to the other parts of the blast furnace’s

inner surface at the section transitions. The assumption is

verified by the copper staves of the Ternium Siderar BF

Fig. 4 Wear status of the copper staves in Ternium Siderar BF No:2

[4]

Fig. 5 Experimental and theoretical wall and vertical fill pressures

during steady discharge in a silo.

Fig. 6 The wall pressures in the dynamic condition [17]

2140 Trans Indian Inst Met (2017) 70(8):2137–2145

123

No:2 (Fig. 4) which shows bosh and belly wear condition

after three-year of furnace service lifetime. It is clearly

seen in the same figure, there is no wear at the bosh and

belly transition. There are also residual accretion layers

even if the BF burden is entirely discharged.

The pressure of the burdenmaterial on the bosh stave helps

the formation of the accretion layer because of two effects:

• The first effect is the increase of pressure on the bosh

wall which is caused by the burden material. The

increasing pressure on the bosh decreases the perme-

ability of the burden material around the bosh stave

surface. Thus, lower permeability obstructs the hot

gasses to pass near the wall which reduces the heat on

the surface as well. This situation enables the accretion

layer formation which prevents the stave from abrasion

and high surface temperature.

• The second is the filling effect of the burden material

into the geometric spaces, roughness, discontinuities

and non-flatness areas of the stave surface with

increasing pressure. The filling effect may cause a

geometric reaction against the descending behavior of

the burden material. The stationary or descending

velocity of the burden material cools more efficiently

which increases the capability of the formation of

accretion layer. The accretion layer prevents the stave

surface from mechanical abrasion.

In the light of this explanation, a new pressure function

called BWFp is represented to show the wall pressure

factor on the bosh wall. If the wall pressure on the bosh

surface area increases, then the wear rate of the copper

staves decreases. So, that means higher values of the BWFp

reduces the risk of the premature wear rate.

The assumptions of the BWFp function are as follows:

• Bosh area and tuyeres carry the whole burden material

• If the bosh angle is enlarged, the load on the bosh

surface decreases while the load on the tuyeres

increases contrarily.

• The load shared by bosh surface and tuyeres is

represented by the cosine function of bosh angle. If

the bosh angle is 90�, then all the weight of the burden

material is supposed to be carried by tuyeres which

mean the pressure on the bosh surface area is zero.

• During calculation of the burden material weight, the

levels between the middle of the bosh area and stocking

is taken into account.

• The stock line is supposed to be 1 m above the end of

the upper stack.

• The pressure on the bosh is presented as the weight of

the burden material over bosh surface area. This

expression is also correlated with cosine function to

represent the load share between bosh area and tuyeres.

The BWFp formula is defined as follows:

BWFp ¼ M1 � cos bboshAbosh

ð2Þ

where

M1 ¼ V1 � q ð3Þ

If we put this in Eq. 2, the final formula is

BWFpðV1; q; bbosh;Abosh; Þ ¼V1 � q � cos bbosh

Abosh

ð4Þ

2.3 BWFv- Velocity Function of BWF

The velocity of the burden material is directly related to

stave wear rate because of two reasons:

• Firstly, if the descending velocity of the burden

material is decreased, the wear rate of the stave is also

reduced proportionally due to nature of abrasion wear

mechanism.

• Secondly, if the descending velocity of the burden

material decreases, the performance of the stave cooling

increases contrarily. Reduced velocity increases the

retention time of the burdenmaterial in front of the stave.

For this reason, the stave with same cooling capacity

decreases the temperature of the burdenmaterial in away

that is inversely proportional to the burden velocity.

Both these reasons help in the formation of the accretion

layer and prevent the stave surface frommechanical abrasion.

A new velocity function called BWFv is represented in

this section. If the burden material velocity decreases, then

the wear rate of the copper staves also decreases.

The assumptions of BWFv are as follows:

• Daily charged burden material is calculated as a

multiplying factor to working volume by productivity.

• The mean velocity at the belly is taken into account.

However, since this is multiplied by pressure function

as a risk factor, the inverse of it is taken here.

Fig. 7 Summary of pressure and velocity effects to the premature

wear of copper staves

Trans Indian Inst Met (2017) 70(8):2137–2145 2141

123

• Cosine function of bosh angle is taken as a velocity

correction factor on the wall. If the bosh angle reaches

90�, the velocity on the walls get its highest value on

the same working volume, productivity, and bosh lower

diameter values.

The BWFv formula is defined as follows:

BWFv ¼ cos bboshAvg:Vbelly

ð5Þ

Daily charged material is calculated as following:

Md ¼ uWorking � VWorking ð6Þ

Mean velocity on the belly diameter is described as:

Avg:Vbelly ¼Md

q

Abelly

; whereAbelly ¼/2

belly� p

4ð7Þ

Avg:Vbelly ¼uWorking � VWorking

/2

belly�p

4� q

ð8Þ

Table 1 The blast furnace specification list that indicates more than 10 year lifetime

ID BF_01 BF_04 BF_09 BF_14 BF_18 BF_19 BF_26 BF_31

Wear status No wear No wear No wear No wear No wear No wear No wear No wear

Blow-in 07.2001 12.1999 07.1998 08.2000 10.2004 08.2001 05.2000 10.2003

Ht (m) 2.000 3.850 1.500 2.600 2.000 3.271 1.144 1.945

Dt (m) 9.515 6.400 6.300 8.900 9.400 9.900 8.2 8.3

Hs (m) 15.910 14.800 15.000 15.500 17.627 17.240 17.745 15.66

bstack (�) 83.000 84.020 82.612 81.200 82.800 81.123 81.6 81.24

Hbelly (m) 2.140 2.200 2.170 2.400 2.495 2.510 1.76 2.7

[b (m) 13.630 9.500 10.534 13.600 14.756 15.500 12.385 13.37

Hbosh (m) 3.330 3.060 3.730 3.200 3.167 3.200 3.690 3.200

Bbosh (�) 71.000 72.200 70�670 71.300 68.000 60.000 77.072 72.000

Wworking (m3) 2434 1222 1347 2490 3144 3525 2206 2350

Table 2 The blast furnace specification list that indicates less than 10 year lifetime

ID BF _08 BF _12 BF _13 BF _15 BF _16 BF _20

Wear status No wear No wear No wear No wear No wear No wear

Blow-in 05.2010 05.2008 08.2006 07.2009 09.2011 10.2006

Ht (m) 2.556 2.600 1.200 2.070 2.556 2.000

Dt (m) 6.600 10.000 7.000 12.120 6.600 10.900

Hs (m) 14.389 17.000 12.000 17.500 14.389 19.700

bstack (�) 82.900 81.283 82.200 79.010 82.900 83.000

Hb (m) 2.005 2.500 2.800 1.800 2.005 2.000

[b (m) 9.980 16.000 10.000 17.900 9.980 15.070

Hb (m) 2.640 3.650 3.000 4.370 2.640 2.900

b (�) 66.000 74.000 71.000 71.580 66.000 80.000

Wworking (m3) 1212 3765 1145 4777 1212 3821

Item BF _25 BF _27 BF _28 BF _32 BF _33 BF _34

Wear status No wear No wear No wear No wear No wear No wear

Blow-in 02.2009 02.2009 07.2010 10.2010 04.2005 04.2012

Ht (m) 2.05 1.57 3 2 1.650 1.6

Dt (m) 10.8 9.6 8.5 8.6 8.640 9.5

Hs (m) 17.8 17.6 15.5 17.00 15.650 17.45

bstack (�) 81.060 81.020 70.010 82.100 82.227 81.413

Hbelly (m) 2.4 3 2.6 2.69 1.650 2.1

[b (m) 16.6 15.16 15.52 14.41 12.913 14.7

Hbosh (m) 4.400 3.500 3.300 3.43 4.345 3.95

Bbosh (�) 78.000 71.360 69.000 78.000 77.900 71.338

Wworking (m3) 4254 3361 3062 2851 2268 3117

2142 Trans Indian Inst Met (2017) 70(8):2137–2145

123

If we put this in Eq. 5, the final formula is

BWFv ¼ cos bboshuWorking�VWorking

/2belly

�p4

�q

ð9Þ

BWFvðbbosh;/belly; q;uWorking;VWorkingÞ

¼cos bbosh�/2

belly� p � q

uWorking � VWorking � 4ð10Þ

2.4 Final Formula

If we combine two functions, BWFp, and BWFv, into BWF

function, this represents the risk of the premature wear of

copper staves.

BWF ¼ V1 � q � cos bboshAbosh

�cos bbosh�/2

belly� p � q

uWorking � VWorking � 4� 100

ð11Þ

The density difference is not taken into account in the

calculations. Densities of the burden materials are

supposed to be same for all BFs in this paper.

The effects of wall pressure on the bosh surface and

burden velocity relation with the wear of copper stave can

be summarized as seen in Fig. 7.

3 Experimental Study

The data of 34 different blast furnaces obtained from the

members of World Steel Assoc. are categorized into three

groups according to actual lifetimes and reported wear

conditions:

• Group 1: no wear with more than 10 years lifetime

(Table 1)

• Group 2: no wear with less than 10 years lifetime

(Table 2)

• Group 3: wear with less than 10 years lifetime

(Table 3)

The design and operation parameters of furnaces are

also included in these tables [18].

By using the design and operation parameters presented

in the tables above, BWF values are calculated for each

Table 3 The blast furnace specification list that indicates damaged copper staves

Item BF_02 BF_03 BF_05 BF_06 BF_07 BF_10 BF_11

Wear status Wear Wear Wear Wear Wear Wear Wear

Blow-in 09.2011 06.2010 10.2010 01.2006 05.2005 01.2008 11.2007

Ht (m) 2.600 2.000 2.070 1.800 1.570 2.600 3.600

Dt (m) 9.480 8.200 11.100 8.900 11.300 9.480 11.620

Hs (m) 17.250 17.100 17.500 16.600 17.700 17.250 17.500

bstack (�) 83.040 83.160 79.010 81.440 80.540 83.040 80.590

Hbelly (m) 2.860 2.400 1.800 2.400 2.000 2.860 1.800

[b (m) 13.740 12.300 17.800 13.900 15.900 13.740 16.300

Hbosh (m) 3.710 4.800 4.400 4.600 4.000 3.710 4.400

Bbosh (�) 79.000 75.290 75.353 76.640 85.820 79.000 77.200

Wworking (m3) 2974 2298 4571 2803 3998 2974 4301

Item BF_17 BF_21 BF_22 BF_23 BF_24 BF_29 BF_30

Wear status Wear Wear Wear Wear Wear Wear Wear

Blow-in 02.2007 05.2006 08.2009 10.2007 01.2010 12.2001 09.2003

Ht (m) 1.700 1.500 2.100 2.740 3.2 0 1.945

Dt (m) 9.400 10.100 8.764 7.660 11.1 8.7 8.3

Hs (m) 15.000 17.500 16.470 15.345 17.5 18.1 15.66

bstack (�) 84.417 80.590 80.140 82.552 80.430 84.200 81.240

Hbelly (m) 2.410 1.950 2.500 1.65 2 2.418 2.7

[b (m) 12.800 15.900 14.532 11.440 17 12.674 13.37

Hbosh (m) 3.900 4.000 4.508 2.425 4.800 2.920 3.200

Bbelly (�) 74.400 76.640 80.000 85.356 77.090 80.000 72.000

Wworking (m3) 2332 3680 3029 1568 4469 2285 2350

Trans Indian Inst Met (2017) 70(8):2137–2145 2143

123

blast furnace. Those values are extracted to the Excel

package to analyze whether the new approach represents

the risk of the premature wear or not.

4 Results and Discussion

The variation of BWF values on BF-IDs is shown in Fig. 8.

The blue line represents the average value of BWF’s of the

Group-1. Similarly, the red line represents the mean value

of the BWF’s of the Group-3. BWF’s of the Group-2 are

shown with yellow filled circles.

In this paper, it has already been claimed earlier that the

increase of pressure and the decrease of velocity causes

less premature wear on the surface of the copper staves. So,

there should be no wear in the BF’s which have higher

values of BWF. As seen in Fig. 8, blue line with a 6139

mean value is located at the upper part of the graph which

supports our BWF approach. The furnaces which have no

wear more than 10 years have higher BWF values. In other

words, higher BWF mean less wear on the copper staves.

On the contrary, with the decrease in pressure and the

increase of velocity of burden material, the staves are faced

with high wear risk. Figure 8 shows the red line with 2059

as the mean BWF value of the staves with wear in less than

10 year lifetime. As seen in that figure, BWF values are at

lower limits for those staves. This situation also vindicates

the claims of this study.

The Group-2 is shown with yellow filled circles. The

average line of them has not been calculated since they

have less than 10 year lifetime. But, as seen in the Fig. 8,

the values of Group-2 are near to the no wear line which

also supports the reliability of the BWF approach.

5 Conclusions

• In this paper, a new approach is introduced to define the

premature risk factor of copper staves of blast furnaces.

The study is supported by visits to the location of BFs

in Japan and Turkey, and by communications with blast

furnace experts from Turkey, Japan, China, and South

Korea. Additionally, the detailed BF Data is supplied

from World Steel Assoc.

• BWF is based on the formation of the protection layer

in front of the stave, the heat load on the stave and

mechanical abrasion effect of the burden material on

the copper stave hot face. Higher values of the BWF

formula prevent the copper stave from mechanical

abrasion, reduce the heat load on the bosh surface area

and help the formation of accretion layer in front of the

stave.

• The new approach is a unique study in literature which

predicts the risk of the copper staves by using blast

furnace operation and design parameters.

• The analysis and investigations conducted in this paper

clearly show that the wall pressure increase on the bosh

Fig. 8 The variation of BWF’s due to BF-ID’s

2144 Trans Indian Inst Met (2017) 70(8):2137–2145

123

surface decreases the risk of the premature wear of

copper staves, even though it has been claimed contrary

in some studies mentioned before. Since there is no

wear at the high wall pressure zones of the bosh

section, one can conclude that higher pressure on bosh

leads to less abrasion wear.

• The usage of BWF can provide crucial economic

benefits for iron and steel industry. The benefit

increases proportionally by an increase of blast furnace

working volume and productivity. Blast furnace

designer can implement this approach during the design

of blast furnace staves for an extended life of the

cooling stave system and prevent productivity loss. By

adapting this new approach, blast furnace relines,

caused by premature wear of copper staves, can be

eliminated for at least 10 years after first blown which

costs more than 150 M USD [19, 20] and additional

loss of daily production cost.

Acknowledgements We are grateful to World Steel Association and

privately to Mr. Rizwan Janjua, who is Manager of the Technology

and Environment Department for access to valuable 34 BF’s opera-

tion and geometrical data.

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