SLAG POT DESIGN

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January 9th 2014

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Slag Pots
Design
The shape of a slag pot depends primarily on the operational conditions it has to withstand.
Thus, the following design criteria must be taken into consideration
z
z
z
z
z
z

Type of furnace that the slag pot will service,

Quantity and type of slag generated,
Method of handling and dumping the pot,
Heat impact during operation,
Dimensional restrictions,
Pot maintenance procedures

A slag pot essentially consists of the real container part as well as of the parts necessary for the
handling of the pot.
Parts that are needed to
handle a slag pot are:
*
at least 2 trunnions to pick it
up and move it whereever
this should be necessary,
*
the base to put it down onto
the ground
*
a mechanism to handle the
pot by a slag pot carrier, that
is, using this mechanism, the
pot can be tippped to pour
molten slag into slag pits for
processing,
*
at least one tilting lug either
to tip the filled pot by a crane or to turn the empty pot in an appropriate position for
cooling down or for repair.
*

A slag pot with all parts necessary for its handling must be designed to meet the following
essentials:
z

The thermal expansion due to heat load during operation should be uniform all over the
circumference of the slag pot body and should be hindered as few as possible by
material accumulations and ribs resulting in section areas of wall thickness transition

http://specialproduct.net/design.shtml

09-Jan-14

SLAG POT DESIGN

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Likewise an uniform contraction should be aimed at by a steered cooling after dumping.

Thus, there are rules of thumb in

developping slag pot designs:
*
The slag pot should be round.
*
The bottom of the pot should not be
in direct contact with the ground, but
some ground clearance should be
forseen.
*
As few ribs as possible should be
placed on the outside of the slag pot.
*

All these criteria aim at as good a stability or stiffness as possible to prevent excessive
premature deformation and secure the best life history of the slag pot.
Details on how to design slag pot trunnions may be found here.

Section Modulus
A significant measure of stiffness is section modulus, which is stiffness from shape or
geometry. Unlike modulus of elasticity, it has nothing to do with the material.
Actually section modulus is an aspect of moment of inertia which is a function of a shape's
cross-sectional area in combination with its height.
Stiffness from geometry of section modulus is a very powerful engineering tool. The
knowledge of section modulus enables the engineer to create metal shapes that are much stiffer
than the material itself could ever be.
The most significant observation that can be made about stiffness from geometry is that there
is no other method besides metal casting that can offer so much geometry in the design and
manufacture of component shapes. Because of this, parts to handle a slag pot such as the tilting
lugs, are rather cast-on than welded in place.
Another significant observation is that design stress in a structural part is directly related to
section modulus. In fact, it is a direct, inverse relationship in which increasing section modulus
decreases stress.
We now see an important synergism between modulus of elasticity and section modulus.
Modulus of elasticity determines how much stress a metal can safety carry before it begins to
deform permanently and section modulus enables the engineer to use geometry to keep the
stress within safe bounds. As we have got to know, creative use of section modulus enables
relatively weaker metals to do the work of stronger ones.

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http://specialproduct.net/design.shtml

USA

09-Jan-14