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The thermal stresses can be reduced to a m1n1mum b correCt: heating control, slow heating up, suitable positioning of the burners and also insulating the furnace well, especially in the region of the bottom, so that the temperature differences in the kettle is kept below 50 deg C. On the rare occasion of a kettle failure in no case was the heat stress found to be the only cause of the failure even at temperature differences up to 150 deg c, but a correlation with liquid metal corrosion was always found.
6.4.1 Hydrostatic load by the liquid zinc
The kettle walls are subjected to the hydrostatic load of the zinc melt and to the tensile and pressure bending stresses, therefore deeper kettles are supported. The critical load region is at the bottom of the side walls. During use of the kettle, stresses lead to plastic deformation by creep. The critical stress whereby a measureable creep occurs is temperature and time dependant. In extreme cases creep in the steel results in a loss of form stability, for instance a bending outwards of the side walls after long use. The tensile strength of the steel decreases with time due to the high temperature, so that after long service life (approximately 10 years) this can lead to a rupture of the kettle.
6.4.2 Thermal stresses
Stresses due to resisting thermal expansions between heated and unheated kettle regions can be limited by checking the causes of the temperature difference. The maximum temperature differentia-l is dependant upon the bath depth and wall thickness and typically is 100 deg C for kettles 2.2 m deep, whereby no measurable creep of the steel is found. From practical experience when heating up kettles such temperature differences are allowed for kettles up to 3 m deep. As with thermal stresses, tensile stresses should be considered which develop in the side and cross joints originating from closely packed zinc blocks caused by differential expansions of steel and zinc during heating up. Filling a kettle with zinc blocks must be carried out in such a way as to ensure sufficient gaps in the middle of the kettle so that during the heating up period almost no tensile stress can develop (fig, 2).
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6.4.3 Stresses from construction
During construction stresses in the kettle arise from resha ping and welding. With present fabrication methods these stresses can be minimised, so that they have no influence on the intended use of the kettle. Stress relieving therefore is not necessary because at the prevailing kettle temperatures the reduction of any stresses takes place during the heat-up period.
6.5 Service life of a kettle
The service life is determined by the speed ,of iron dissolved from the walls by the zinc during kettle use. The weight loss from the ,base is minimal. At start•-up the mechanism of the reaction between steel and liquid zinc is the same as when steel articles are galvanized. With time iron is constantly dissolved from the walls by diffusion,, which causes alloy layer growth the kettle walls retarding the diffusion.
The formation of the layer depends on the temperature (figure 9). With increasing temperature up to 485 deg C the diffusion accelerates slowly causing a slow but constant increase of the iron loss. In this range the iron loss follows a parabolic time law. In the temperature range of 490 and 530 deg c it follows a more or less linear time law and the iron loss in this range is substantially higher. The reaction temperature of the zinc and the steel is the temperature at the interface of alloy layer at the inside wall. This temperature cannot be measured and is not the same as the temperature of the liquid zinc in the kettle, which is the result of the equalibrium between the amount of heat put in and taken out of the furnace.