Investigations of SiC aggregates oxidation: Influence on SiC castables refractories life time at high temperature

This paper reports results concerning the oxidation of silicon carbide of pure SiC powder (98% of SiC) and the oxidation of two silicon carbide castables, used in waste-to-energy plants (WTE), and containing 60% and 85% of SiC, respectively. The investigated temperature range (800–1200 °C) corresponds to typical service conditions in WTE. Thanks to thermogravimetric and thermal expansion tests, kinetics of oxidation of the powder of SiC and of the castables has been investigated. According to these tests, several important points have been underlined. Firstly, the oxidation of SiC aggregates has a high influence on the thermal expansion and on the weight gain of SiC castables. Secondly, the grain size distribution of SiC aggregates within castables plays a dominating role (especially enhanced for the fine particles) in castable expansion behaviour induced by oxidation. This is a key point according to the evolution of thermal expansion of such materials.