Corrosion Problems in a Blast Furnace

Water-Cooling System
By H. B. Lloyd
(Workington Iron and Steel Co.)

The author describes the techniques and designs employed to provide a practical solution to the
corrosion problems of a blast furnace water-cooling system based on a soft-water supply. He discusses,
among other things, the water-cooling system, the external pipework and the stave coolers.

THE length of a blast furnace cam­ cooler is usually flush with the inside
paign, from the time that the furnace face of the furnace wall, but the
is put on blast until it is finally blown tuyere itself protrudes about 9 to
out, is normally expected to be about 12 in. into the furnace. The tuyeres
five years. During this period the and the tuyere coolers normally each
nature of the repairs which it is prac­ have independent water feeds from
ticable to carry out are strictly limited. the lower ring mains.
The furnace is lined with refractory In some designs of furnace, the
bricks, the effective cooling of which hearth is above ground level and some
is generally considered to be one of the cooling is achieved simply by spraying
major influences on the life of the water on to the hearth jacket. Where
furnace. The almost universal method the hearth is below ground level, heat
employed1 is the circulation of large passes through the hearth jacket to
quantities of water, and it will be the surrounding earth. Stave coolers
appreciated that the requirement is are mounted within this hearth jacket;
for a steady and uninterrupted flow these consist of massive iron castings
for the entire campaign. Corrosion 12 to 18 ft. long and about 2 to 4 ft.
(or deposition) cannot, therefore, be wide by 6 in. thick. Mild steel pipes
tolerated. are cast into these in order to provide
The cooling-water system may be waterways for cooling. A typical
divided into three parts: arrangement is shown in Fig. 2. It
will be noted that the external con­
(1) The stack and bosh. nections for the coolers come out at
(2) The tuyeres. the top. However, in the case of the
(3) The hearth. cooler plates which go below the
Fig. 1 shows a typical arrangement. tapping hole and the slag notch, the
Usually the water is supplied from coolers are not accessible at the top
two circular ring mains, one about and arrangements have to be made
half-way up the furnace stack and one of slightly conical copper castings to bring the connections out from the
at a lower level. Cast copper plates which have hollow walls. Water is front of the cooler plate.
are mounted in pockets in the stack circulated through the annular hollow In the case of the plant with which
and these are normally connected in space and normally each tuyere has its the writer is concerned, the cooling
series of six to twelve plates, the top own feed from the lower of the two water is obtained from a fast-flowing
plate of each series being connected to ring mains. The tuyere is inserted river. The water is recirculated
the ring main. into the furnace through a circular through a pond which is the source of
The tuyeres through which the blast copper cooler, usually known as a water for a number of cooling systems
air is blown into the furnace consist tuyere cooler or jumbo. The tuyere and which is usually some 30°F. above
atmospheric temperature. It is very
TABLE 1 soft and contains much dissolved
C o m p a r i s o n of Rate of Flow of Cooling Water in a 20-ft. H e a r t h - D i a m e t e r oxygen and is consequently highly
Blast Furnace corrosive. Typical analysis of the
(Rate of flow, gallons per minute) water shows:
April April March , April August October pH value ... ... 7.0-7.5
Cooler 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 Calcium hardness ... 20-60 p.p.m.
g.p.m. g.p.m. g.p.m. g.p.m. g.p.m. g-P-m. Total hardness (in terms
Upper stack ... ... 500 442 407 361 255 204 of CaCO 3 )
Lower stack ... ... 532 417 305 235 554 438 Extreme range ... 30-90 p.p.m.
Bosh ... ... ... 485 367 266 173 182 163 Normal range ... 35-45 p.p.m.
Breast ... ... ... 228 219 156 90 54 50 Chlorides (in terms of
Tuyere ... ... 738 517 425 313 274 192 NaCl) ... ... 25-45 p.p.m.
Jumbo ... ... 778 640 469 329 176 86 Sulphates (in terms of
Stave ... ... ... 1,293 843 581 315 295 431
Miscellaneous... ... 100 75 70 65 36 33 Na.SO 4 ) ... ... 20-45 p.p.m.
... Dissolved oxygen (at
Total ... 4,654 3,520 2,679 1,881 1,826 1,597 77°F.) ... ... 5.0-5.8 mL/litre

July 19S7 CORROSION TECHNOLOGY 221

 Suspended matter: normally negli­
gible, but on specific occasions (e.g.
after very heavy rainfall) may be high
for short periods.
External pipework
In conventional design the various
cooling elements are connected by
using lengths of mild-steel pipe in
conjunction with malleable-iron elbows
and a centrally located expansion
piece. This system has the advantage
that connections can be made without
difficulty, although the coolers are not
located with precision. The arrange­
ment is shown in Fig. 3. Corrosion of
both the iron and the steel, particu­
larly the latter, develops rapidly,
assisted no doubt by the electro­
chemical effect arising from the copper-
iron junctions; typical limpets develop
on the tube walls and these grow until
either the wall starts to leak or com­
plete blockage occurs. Fig. 4a shows
a section of pipe after about three
years' service. The wall thickness is
much reduced and the pipe is almost
completely blocked with the products
of corrosion.
The figures in Table 1 show the
cooling water distribution over the
life of a 20-ft. hearth-diameter furnace.
It will be observed that the original
total rate of flow was 4,654 g.p.m. and
that this has been reduced by corro­
sion to 1,597 g.p.m., a reduction of
66%. In reality, even this rate of
flow was only obtained because the
maintenance staff renewed part of the
pipework and separated some of the
rows of cooler plates into two sections,
each with an independent feed.
Internal coating, using the equiva­
lent of Angus Smith's solution and
painting with aluminium paint possibly
delays the onset of corrosion, but was
not effective here. There is little
doubt that screwed copper connections
would eliminate the trouble, but the
cost is prohibitive.
It is necessary that blast furnace
plant should be of robust construction,
but it was nevertheless decided to try
out copper tubing, using standard
compression fittings. The tubing
initially selected was l¼|-in. nominal
bore x 16 s.w.g. half-hard solid drawn
to B.S.S. 1386. In order to facilitate
fitting, the connection between the
cooler plates was by means of two
tubes which were joined by a piece of
asbestos-covered rubber hose. The
experimental length gave satisfactory
results and Fig. 4b shows a piece of
tubing after five years' service. As
there was no blocking up, it was
possible to reduce the diameter of the
stack tubing, at first to 1-in. nominal

222 CORROSION TECHNOLOGY July 1957


bore and then to ¾-in., and the first
furnace to be completely piped up in
this way is now approaching the end
of its campaign. The cost of this
arrangement, which is shown in Fig. 5,
is slightly less initially than with the
old system and, as it is anticipated
that most of the tubing will be suitable
for re-use, a considerable saving will
result.
Stave coolers
In order to overcome the corrosion
trouble in the stave coolers, a design
as shown in Fig. 6 was developed.
Straight mild-steel pipes were cast
into the cooler and a copper tube
inserted. The bore of the mild steel
tube prior to casting was 1.991 in. and
the copper was a l¾-in. nominal bore
tube (intermediate size to B.S.S. 1386),
having an outside diameter of 1.870 in.
and an inside diameter of 1.726 in.
and supplied fully annealed. A dolly of
diameter 1.856 in. with a central hole
tapered at the end to enable a wire
rope to be fixed to it was then pulled
through, thus swaging the copper tube
on to the wall of the steel tube. The
nominal basis of the design was that
the cross-sectional area of the wall
would be the same before and after
swaging; on this basis the estimated
drawing force was 0.3 tons. How­
ever, in practice the force needed was
7.5 tons and it was observed that, as the
dolly passed through the tube, the free
end moved slowly out of the steel
tubing until finally an extension of
about 2⅜ in. (on 13 ft. 6 in.) was
obtained. This was attributed to a
reduction in the bore of the steel tube
during the casting operation.
The bottom end was sealed with a
conical copper disc held in position
with a screwed steel plug and the top
end swaged over so that a gun-metal
cap could be fitted to give an entirely
non-ferrous joint. Through the cap
a copper dip tube was inserted and
July 1957 CORROSION TECHNOLOGY
the water passes down this and up
the annular space between the two
tubes. A cooler of this design has
been mounted in conditions similar to
operating conditions for a long period
and the water flow through it has been
measured periodically. The results
are shown in Fig. 7. It will be noted
that the flow has been somewhat
reduced with time due to deposits of
mud, but flushing with high pressure
water has cleared this and the full
flow has been obtained again. If there
were any difficulty in removing mud
deposits the dip tube could be freed
at the top and pushed down into the
mud before applying the high pressure
water. Probably if this were done, no
extra pressure of water would be
needed for flushing.
Special stave coolers
For reasons already explained, on
the coolers below the tapping hole
and the slag notch it is necessary to
bring the outlets to the front face of
the cooler which precludes a dip tube
design. It was decided to experiment
with the casting-in of pure nickel
tubes instead of the steel tubes pre­
viously used. It would be an advan­
tage in design if these tubes could be
welded to shape, and accordingly a
straight length of 2 in. diam. x 16
gauge nickel tubing was cut and butt
welded together again and cast into
the middle of a 6 in. x 6 in. x 2 ft.
cast-iron block. From an initial ex­
amination it appeared that the experi­
ment had been successful, but on
sectioning it was found that some iron
had penetrated the weld. In order
that welding should facilitate the
arrangement of the tubing some fairly
difficult welds would have been re­
quired and, in view of the experimental
result, it was decided not to employ
welding. However, it was found the
tubing could be bent to a 6-in. radius
and a rearrangement of the run of the
tubing enabled satisfactory designs to
be drawn out.
There is a small cooler above the
tapping hole, and although this could
be designed on the dip tube principal,
it was a suitable cooler for experiment
with nickel and two tubes, 2 in. diam.
12 gauge were bent to the shape
shown in Fig. 8 and cast into the
cooler. In order to make provision
for connections to the nickel tubing, a
steel sleeve screwed externally to 2 in.
B.S.P. thread was bored out so as to
fit over the end of the nickel tube and
welded to it at the outer end prior to
casting. It is then a simple matter to
arrange for a screwed connection to
provide a copper-nickel junction with
223
the external copper pipework, so that
the water makes no contact with cast
iron or steel.
Water cooling of the tubes during
casting was considered to be practical
but it was thought that there was some
danger involved. A thin refractory
coating on the surface of the tube
would be of appreciable assistance in
preventing it from melting, but never­
theless it was decided to proceed with­
out any special protection of the tube.
The only precautions taken were that
the iron was cast at the lowest practical
temperature and care was taken to see
that the iron did not wash against the
metal tube as it flowed into the mould.
A satisfactory casting was obtained
with no penetration of iron into the
nickel tubing. The technique is thus
shown to be practicable.
Water has been flowing through this
cooler for about three years and, with
occasional flushing, it has remained
perfectly clear.
Conclusion
The techniques and designs em­
ployed provide a practical solution to
the corrosion problems of a blast
furnace water-cooling system which is
dependent on a softwater supply.
It may be anticipated that after
more experience it will be found
possible to leave the stave coolers in
position for more than one campaign
which, apart from the saving in the
cost of the coolers themselves, would
appreciably shorten the furnace re­
building time.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Comparatively recently steam has been supplies were adequate. At the present
raised in blast-furnace tuyeres (page 1201, time, however, steel is in such short
Iron and Coal Trades Review dated Novem­ supply that more rapid means have
ber 16, 1956—' " H o t " Cooling of Blast- had to be found. Amongst these are
Furnace Tuyeres '). Some consideration
has been given to the air cooling of furnace shot blasting, stretching, flame clean­
hearths.
224
On-Site Pickling of Steel
The presence of a hard, brittle film
of scale formed on steel girders, sheets
and plates, during rolling or heat
treatment, has proved a continuous
difficulty to fabricators and manu­
facturers who subsequently finish the
construction with paint. The oxide
layer, provided it is continuous, is of
itself a protective film and paint
applied to a freshly rolled steel plate
will afford a high degree of protection.
The scale is, however, almost in­
variably permeable due to pin-holing
or cracking, so that it shows a con­
tinual tendency to further oxidation
under conditions of exposure to air,
moisture or other more corrosive
agents. This leads to the formation
of voluminous hydrated oxides at the
inter-face between the scale and the
steel, forcing the scale away from the
base metal so that the scale and any
paint on the surface are easily re­
moved.
One of the most effective methods
of ensuring adequate protection is to
remove the scale before painting. This
is recognised, for instance, by the
code of practice laid down by the
shipping industry which stipulates
that ships' plates should be cleaned
and de-scaled before building into the
ship. Before the war, the most com­
mon, inexpensive and easy method of
doing this was weathering, i.e. leaving
the sheets exposed to outdoor condi­
tions for a period long enough to
cause the scale to become non­
adherent due to the further oxidation.
This was easily possible when steel
ing and chemical means. Both shot
blasting and flame cleaning add con­
siderably to the cost of pretreatment
whilst stretching is only applicable to
small sections in lightly stressed
constructions.
In the chemical method of scale
removal, the oxides are dissolved by
the action of a pickling acid leaving
the steel surface in a clean condition.
Generally speaking, strong mineral
acids are used. In the case of steel
plates, girders etc. very large installa­
tions are required because of the size
of the parts, the long immersion times
required in the pickling solution, the
need for thorough rinsing after pickling
and the drying of the work before it is
ready for painting. In some instances,
the pickling solution is heated, as is
the final rinse, thus increasing the
overall operating costs. The com­
plete plant is extremely expensive
both in space and the equipment
required.
An ingenious alternative has been
developed by The Walterisation Co.
Ltd. in which the pickling solution is
incorporated in a thixotropic jelly.
This enables the pickling to be carried
out in situ, i.e. on the stocks, in the
shipyard or at the final stage of manu­
facture. By this process, the acid can
be applied direct to the surface and is
held in contact with the scale without
running off the surface before it has
time to perform its function. Thus
the scale can be removed by pickling
in the least expensive manner as
neither equipment, apart from a brush
for applying the chemical, nor ser­
vices, except for a water supply to
wash off the spent solution, is required.
This new product has been named
Waltergel.
Waltergel, as supplied, is a firm
jelly-like substance. A short stir with
a rod or stick, however, causes the
product to liquefy partially and pro­
duces a consistency which can readily
be applied by an ordinary brush. The
Waltergel should be applied liberally
over the surface to be descaled and
allowed to remain in contact therewith
for 20 to 30 min. As will be appreci­
ated, the greater the scale present on
the surface, the more liberal should be
the application of Waltergel.
Change o f Address
Rediweld Ltd. announce that they
have changed their address from
17 Crompton Way, Crawley, Sussex,
to 17/27 Kelvin Way, Crawley, Sussex.
C O R R O S I O N T E C H N O L O G Y July 1957