A long campaign life of the trough of the blast furnace (BF) is important for improving the BF operation efficiency, reducing the cost of blast furnace ironmaking, and bettering the working conditions of the casting yard. In this paper, a water cooling device was designed for the trough of a BF with a volume of 630 m3. The effect of water cooling on lengthening the unit campaign life of the trough was investigated using industrial tests, numerical simulations, and theoretical analysis. Results showed that by using water cooling, the throughput of the trough in a unit campaign was increased by 40,000 tons, and its unit campaign life was increased by 34 days. During a unit campaign cycle, the influence of the water cooling device on the temperature distribution in refractory materials gradually developed from the low-temperature zone to the high-temperature zone, and the expansion of the high-temperature zone was suppressed. Therefore, the water cooling device inhibited the dissolution of refractory materials and retarded the chemical erosion from the molten slag and the atmosphere.
Keywords: blast furnace trough; campaign life; refractory materials; water cooling.