Transient Thermal Stress Analysis of BOF Hood Failure

The failure of BOF hood tube is a common industrial problem that has received little attention in literature. The major mode of failure as observed by most of the industries is thermal fatigue failure. Earlier people have studied the thermal stress profile in hood system considering constant water temperature. However, in reality there are fluctuations in water temperature due to cyclic thermal load caused by BOF gas. Present study reveals that the water temperature fluctuation is having significant impact in causing thermal fatigue failure. The change in water velocity and tube thickness has negligible effect in thermal fatigue failure compared to that observed for water temperature fluctuation. However, tube material of construction is also having significant impact on its failure.