Refractory (Brick) Question on FEA

[CaptainBob]

Is any one out their doing FEA on refractory systems, furnaces, stell ladles, etc. ??

If so what program have you found most user friendly and where have you found the most accurate data on refractory high temperature properties.

I use to use ANSYS for ladle design, but found it hard to use.

Bob

 

[corus]

For refractory brick it is important to know the stress-strain behaviour of the brick at various temperatures, usually up to 1000C. Usually you will need to have these tested by a laboratory in order to determine these mechanical properties as they will change with chemical composition. Ansys will do for the analysis as the bricks are treated just as any other plastic material. The brick will join to the steel shell but you can also model the axial differential expansion by including contact and friction to represent the sliding. Use a 2D axi-symmetric analysis where ever possible with these non-linear problems, it'll be quicker and easier. Abaqus can also do these problems and it is supposedly better with non-linear problems but how true that is is another matter.

corus

http://www.corusresearch.com