Instabilities in electric steelmaking furnace arcs cause electrical and acoustical noise, reduce operat-ing efficiency, increase refractory erosion, and increase electrode usage. The U.S. Bureau of Mines isinvestigating methods to stabilize these arcs. To perform experiments to test new hypotheses, Bureauresearchers designed and instrumented an advanced, experimental single-phase furnace. This reportdescribes this furnace, which was equipped with high-speed data acquisition capabilities for electrical,temperature, pressure, and flow-rate measurements; automated atmosphere control; ballistic calo-rimetry; and view ports for high-speed cinematography. Precise environmental control and accurate dataacquisition allow the statistical design of experiments and assignment of rigorous confidence limits whenpotential furnace or procedural modifications are tested.
Electric Arc Furnace Design
