Wood burning stoves: Material selection and thermal shock testing of fired ceramic bodies

The overall design philosophy of wood-fired stoves is reviewed. The factors affecting the choice of materials are discussed and the relative merits of various alternatives considered. Detailed consideration is given to the development of an appropriate method for evaluating thermal shock resistance of ceramics for stove applications. The method proposed requires the measurement of impact strength subsequent to repeated shocks for comparison with tests on unshocked samples. Tests are described with results which show that this method can effectively discriminate between ceramics of different composition or firing temperature.