Improvement of Radiant Heat Efficiency of the Radiant Tube Used for Continuous Annealing Line by Application of Additive Manufacturing Technology

Abstract

This study presents the application of additive manufacturing (AM) technology to a W-type INCONEL radiant tube (RT) used to improve its radiant heat efficiency. Appropriate dimensions of honeycomb structure were determined from finite element (FE) analysis and the resulting increase in radiant heat was computed. The honeycomb patterns on the RT surfaces were printed using the directed energy deposition (DED) method. Radiant heat efficiency of a prototype RT with a honeycomb pattern printed was examined in a pilot furnace emulating the continuous annealing line (CAL). Finally, soundness of the prototype RT was tested on-site on the actual the CAL of No. 3 CGL in POSCO Gwangyang Steel Works. The results revealed that partial FE analysis, which predicts the amount of radiant heat by partially modeling the RT structure rather than modeling the entire RT structure, is suitable for overcoming the limitation of the computer memory capacity and calculating the design parameters of honeycomb patterns. The DED is suitable for printing honeycomb patterns on RT with large and curved surfaces. The average amount of gas consumed to maintain 780 degrees C and 880 degrees C for 1440 min was reduced by 10.42% and 12.31%, respectively. There were no cracks and no gas leaks on the RT surface in an annual inspection over three years.