MAIN PROPERTIES OF REFRACTORY MATERIALS Outstanding refractory materials are significant for the current industrialized world, featured by its high expansion capability, good thermal shock resistance, and superior high temperature property. It is quite important to learn its physical and chemical properties of refractory materials, including refractive index, density, porosity, heat capacity, heat coefficient of linear expansion, thermal conductivity, electrical resistance, and so on.
Refractoriness: Refractoriness stands for the ability of the refractory material to resist thermal deformation or even to melt without losing its form when faces with an intense temperature. Generally, materials can be divided into extra high refractory, high refractory, medium refractory, and low refractory based on its refractoriness.
Refractive Index: One of the main properties of refractory material is the refractive index, which means the speed ratio of neutrons passing through the material versus the neutrons passing through vacuity.
Density: The mass per unit volume is often referred to as the density of the material. When understanding the thermal shock resistance performance, a good density helps to improve the resistance.
Porosity: Porosity is the percentage of air pore in refractory material. Different porosity materials have different environment protection capabilities.
Heat Capacity: Heat capacity is the amount of energy per unit mass needed to raise the temperature by one degree.
Heat Coefficient of Linear Expansion: It measures the percentage change in length in the material per 1 degree increase in temperature.
Thermal Conductivity : Thermal conductivity is used to measure the ability of energy to pass through a refractory material at temperature gradients. This is important for operating temperature as it determines how quickly or easily the heat can pass through the material.
Electrical Resistance: Electrical resistance is the measure of how well a material conducts electricity.
The properties listed above are important for choosing the appropriate refractory material for the application-required temperature range. Selective materials may serve more than one purpose while suitability of others is limited by their properties.
In addition to the physical and chemical properties of refractory materials, some other peripheral information and data should be taken into consideration as well. For instance, the wear resistance of high temperature alloys plays a role in extending their life and consequently increase cost efficiency. The availability of resources, cost and recycling also adds to the considerations when selecting the right refractory material.
The main properties of refractory materials are complex, and informing decisions on the appropriate material to use requires detailed knowledge and background.
