Papers - Smelting - Miscellaneous - Repairing a Large Smelter Chimney Injured by Spalling

During the last decade, since most smelters have included Cottrell plants as standard equipment for the removal of dust from furnace gases, it has become apparent that smeltermen have had a new problem slowly developing. This problem has manifested itself in accelerated destruction of, or serious injury to, the masonry of flues and chimneys. The masonry either spalls, if the material is of low strength, or acquires large major cracks, either of which conditions attains such proportions that renewals or reinforcing become necessary to maintain the structure in satisfactory condition. This paper describes the failure of a large modern brick chimney to such an extent that its safety was vitally impaired; the investigation of its condition; the methods of restoring satisfactory strength to the structure; and the installation of an acidproof lining. Plant History The Clarkdale smelter of the United Verde Copper Co., which was put in operation in 1915, was primarily a blast-furnace plant. The smelter at Jerome had utilized blast furnaces exclusively, and in the design of the new (1915) plant, blast-furnace smelting evidently was considered of major importance, the smelting equipment consisting of four blast furnaces 48 in. by 26 ft. 8 in. and three reverberatories, each 19 by 101 ft. The latter, supplemented by roasters, were intended mainly for handling dust and fine ore resulting from the crushing operations. The original roasting equipment consisted of six six-hearth Wedge roasters, six more being added in 1917. All gases from blast furnaces, reverberatories, roasters and converters were conducted by means of suitable flues and dust chambers to one central chimney. This chimney, 30 ft. inside diameter by 400 ft. high, is a self-supporting steel structure, lined with 4-in. brick supported on steel shelf angles, riveted to the shell, spaced about 15 ft. vertically. The bricks were of local manufacture, not particularly hard-burned, and were laid in ordinary cement-fireclay-sand mortar. No record is available to indicate that any particular effort was made to secure an acidproof mortar. The same materials were employed in the construction of the reverberatory and roaster flues, and the roaster dust chamber. Parenthetically, it may