Alain Gasser

Mortar joints are commonly used in industrial vessels to stabilize refractory linings. Quantification of their mechanical and thermomechanical behaviors is required for appropriate applications. In this study, slant shear tests of mortar joints using refractory–mortar–refractory sandwich structures were performed at room temperature, and the finite element method was used to explain the mechanisms that cause different types of cracking phenomena within the mortar joint. The impact of the testing configuration and surface roughness of the brick samples on load‐displacement curves and maximum loads was investigated. Maximum loads with small deviations were obtained using an improved preparation method and testing configuration. The cohesion and friction angle, which define the Mohr–Coulomb criterion at room temperature, are calculated and applied in the simulation. It was discovered that the competition between the brick‐mortar interface bonding strength and the mortar strength determined the cracking path, and their impact on the maximum load was slight.

Mortarless refractory masonry structures are widely used in the steel industry for the linings of many high-temperature industrial applications including steel ladles. The design and optimization of these components require accurate numerical models that consider the presence of joints, as well as joint closure and opening due to cyclic heating and cooling. The present work reports on the formulation, numerical implementation, validation, and application of homogenized numerical models for the simulation of refractory masonry structures with dry joints. The validated constitutive model has been used to simulate a steel ladle and analyze its transient thermomechanical behavior during a typical thermal cycle of a steel ladle. A 3D solution domain and enhanced thermal and mechanical boundary conditions have been used. Parametric studies to investigate the impact of joint thickness on the thermomechanical response of the ladle have been carried out. The results clearly demonstrate that the thermomechanical behavior of mortarless masonry is orthotropic and nonlinear due to the gradual closure and reopening of the joints with the increase and decrease in temperature. In addition, resulting thermal stresses increase with the increase in temperature and decrease with the increase in joint thickness.

Mortarless refractory masonry structures are widely used in the steel industry for the linings of many high-temperature industrial applications including steel ladle. The design and the optimization of these components require accurate numerical models that consider the presence of joints as well as joints closure and opening due to cyclic heating and cooling. The present work reports on the formulation, numerical implementation, validation, and application of homogenized numerical models for simulation of refractory masonry structures with dry joints. The validated constitutive model has been used to simulate a steel ladle and to analyze its transient thermomechanical behavior during a typical thermal cycle of steel ladle. 3D solution domain, enhanced thermal and mechanical boundary conditions have been used. Parametric studies to investigate the impact of joints thickness on the thermomechanical response of the ladle have been carried out. The results clearly demonstrate that the thermomechanical behavior of mortarless masonry is orthotropic nonlinear due to gradual closure and reopening of joints with the increase and decrease of temperature. Also, resulting thermal stresses increase with the increase of temperature and decrease with the increase of joints thickness.