Patent Application
20210102124
The embodiments disclosed herein relate generally to coke oven wall structures and methods and systems by which such coke oven wall structures may be constructed and/or repaired.
Coke ovens traditionally comprise massive refractory brick structures in which there are batteries of adjacent parallel walls constructed from a large variety of differently shaped refractory bricks. The bricks must be able to withstand high temperatures and strong mechanical loading. At the same time, the interior regions of the walls contain flue ducts, burners, flue gas control passages and the like. The detailed design of the oven is usually quite complicated in order to obtain the necessary heat distribution within the oven and gas flows through the walls.
It follows from the above that coke ovens are relatively costly structures and any downtime for servicing and repairs can represent a significant economic loss for an operator.
Further, the production of ceramic bricks from which the walls are made is relatively costly and there is accordingly a need to generally reduce the number of different types of bricks which are used in a wall. It is undesirable, however, to have a design concept which utilizes relatively large ceramic bricks in the construction. Excessively large bricks cannot be handled without the use of specialized mechanical lifting devices. Further, bricks having a dimension greater than 650 mm machine pressed to form a fused silica product are generally unavailable. Bricks greater than this size can be hand cast but these are much more expensive. Large bricks can be machine pressed from conventional silica, but conventional silica bricks would have a very serious disadvantage in that a wall made therefrom would need a heat-up time which is many times greater than that for fused silica bricks.
While such prior proposals for coke oven corbel structures are satisfactory for their intended purpose, continual improvements are sought. It is towards providing such improvements that the embodiments disclosed herein are directed.
In general, the embodiments disclosed herein are directed toward methods of constructing a refractory wall structure having gas flue spaces. A first course of the wall structure may be constructed in accordance with an embodiment by installing opposing refractory side wall panels that are separated by a distance which defines a widthwise dimension of the wall structure and an interior wall space therebetween. In certain embodiments the side wall panels may include multiple sets of finger forms defining a joint space (e.g., a dovetail joint space), the finger forms protruding inwardly into the interior wall space such that the sets of finger forms of one side panel are oppositely positioned relative to the sets of finger forms of an opposed side wall panel. Thereafter, a series of rigid refractory bridge components may be installed between respective oppositely positioned sets of the finger forms of the opposed wall panels so that a portion of the refractory bridge components is received with the joint space of the finger forms to thereby establish the flue spaces between longitudinally adjacent ones of the bridge components.
In some embodiments the bridge components are precast refractory bridge blocks that may be inserted into position between the side wall panels so that a portion of the bridge blocks is interlockingly joined to the side panels via the joint space. According to other embodiments, the bridge components are installed by positioning removable forms between longitudinally adjacent ones of the multiple sets of finger forms to thereby establish a bridge space between opposed surfaces of the removable forms which includes the joint spaced between the sets of finger forms and then pouring a castable refractory material into the bridge space. The castable refractory material is allowed to cure in the bridge space to thereby form the rigid refractory bridge components which extend the widthwise dimension of the wall structure.
Some embodiments will include pouring the castable refractory material into the bridge space such that a top surface of the castable refractory material in the bridge space forms a gap with the top edge surfaces of the side wall panels. A groove in the top surface of the castable refractory material (e.g., by forcibly pushing an appropriately sized and configured bar into the castable material prior to curing).
The removable forms can comprise H-shaped forms according to certain embodiments, e.g., forms that include a spaced apart pair of face panels and a cross-support extending between the face panels. The removable forms may also include L-shaped flanges at a bottom edge of the face panels (e.g., when constructing courses of the wall structure other than the first (ground) course).
These and other aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more clear after careful consideration is given to the following detailed description of the preferred exemplary embodiments thereof.
The disclosed embodiments of the present invention will be better and more completely understood by referring to the following detailed description of exemplary non-limiting illustrative embodiments in conjunction with the drawings of which:
Accompanying
Each of the courses 10-1, 10-2 includes opposed pairs of latitudinally separated vertically stacked side wall panels 12 and respective interior bridge components 14 transversely extending between such opposed pairs of side wall panels. A plurality of coke oven flue spaces 16 are therefore defined between adjacent ones of the longitudinally separated bridge components 14 and are latitudinally bounded by respective portions of the side wall panels 12. An end cap block 18 can be provided at the terminal end of each of the courses 10-1, 10-2.
As is perhaps best depicted in
Each of the side wall components 12 is preferably a precast structure formed of a suitable refractory material (e.g., fused silica) that is mechanically pressed and cured at high temperatures (e.g., up to about 1400° C.) as described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,599,236, 2,802,749 and 2,872,328, the entire contents of each such patent being expressly incorporated hereinto by reference. The side wall components may also be formed by casting and heat curing a refractory material (e.g., fused silica) as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,277,106 and 5,423,152, the entire contents of each such patent being expressly incorporated hereinto by reference.
The bridge components 14 may be precast of the materials described above or formed using a castable refractory material which can be cast in situ in the manner described below. Any castable refractory material may be employed for such purpose. One exemplary castable refractory material are the FosKast™ FSP family of castable refractory materials commercially available from Fosbel, Inc. of Brook Park, Ohio.
In order to ensure a staggered relationship between vertically adjacent stacked side wall components 12, one or more of the side wall components 12 can be shortened (e.g., by cutting) about one-third of the lengthwise extent of a larger (standard) side wall component 12 (e.g., as shown by the dashed lines in
As shown in
An exemplary removable form 30 that may be employed during casting of the bridge components 14 is shown in
A method by which an initial and subsequent courses of the coke oven wall 10 may be constructed is schematically depicted in
As shown in
Once additional panels 12 are installed in an end-to-end manner with the previously installed panels 12, additional removable forms 30 may be inserted between adjacent sets of finger forms 12a, 12b into what will ultimately become the coke oven wall flue spaces 16 as describe previously. Such a state is shown in
When the side panels 12 and removable forms 30 have been installed for a complete course (e.g., course 10-1 as shown), the bridge space 14a between adjacent ones of the forms 30, including the dovetail joint space 20 of the finger forms 12a, 12b may be filled with a castable refractory material to thereby provide the bridge components 14 when cured. The state in which the castable refractory material has been poured but not yet cured is depicted in
In the embodiment depicted, it will be observed that the bridge space 14a between adjacent removable forms 30 is not filled completely with castable material so as to be flush with the upper edges of the panels 12, but instead is filled such that a relatively small (e.g., about an inch +/−) but meaningful gap G (see
To further assist in such gas sealing of the flue spaces 16, the top surface of the castable material forming the bridge component 16 may be scored prior to curing with a suitably shaped bar (e.g., by forcibly pressing the bar into the uncured castable material) so as to form top surface grooves 14b therein. Such a state is shown in
When the castable material is cured sufficient to form the rigid bridge components 14, the removable forms 30 may be removed physically removed thereby providing for the first course 10-1 as shown in
It will be understood that the description provided herein is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiments of the invention. Thus, the invention is not to be limited to the disclosed embodiments, but on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope thereof.
