Abstract. A series of corundum based castables bonded by ρ-Al 2 O 3 were prepared and fired at different temperature. Influences of apparent porosity and pore size distribution on thermal properties of the samples at different temperature were studied. The relationship between different pore size intervals and thermal conductivity of the samples was also discussed based on grey relational theory. The results show that thermal properties including thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity and specific heat decline as apparent porosity of the samples increases. When apparent porosity of the samples keeps stable with little fluctuation, thermal conductivity increases as median pore size of the samples increases. It is found that thermal conductivity of the samples at a certain temperature presents the largest grey relational degree with the pore size interval that takes up the dominant volume ratio.
IntroductionThermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity and specific heat are the three most important thermal properties for refractory materials. They are mostly influenced by temperature, chemical composition and microstructure [1][2][3], and the relationship between them and pore structure (which describes the microstructure of refractory materials) is studied frequently at present. Large apparent porosity leads to the thermal conductivity decreasing markedly [4], while pore configuration and pore size distribution are also the important factors influencing thermal conductivity [5,6]. However, due to diversification of pore configuration and large range of pore size distribution, the quantitative relationship between them and thermal conductivity is difficult to determine.In this work, a series of corundum based castables with ρ-Al 2 O 3 as the binder (only corundum phase existed after high temperature treatment, thus, the influence of chemical composition on thermal properties could be ignored) were prepared to study the influences of pore structure parameters on thermal properties. Considering the achievement of grey relational theory on describing the uncertainty relationship of two objects [7,8], it was adopted to investigated the relationship between pore size distribution and thermal conductivity.