Thermal Monitoring of an Electric Arc Furnace Burner Block Using Fiber-Optic Sensors

Modern electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking employs gas burner and injector systems to assist scrap melting and deliver oxygen and carbon for refining and slag foaming. Factors such as scrap distribution, injector blowback, and slag foaming can affect the burner block face temperature. This study employs Rayleigh back scattering (RBS) based optical frequency domain reflectometer (OFDR) fiber-optic sensing technology to monitor the temperature of a Linde Fluidic CoJet™ burner block in a DC EAF. The aim is to detect thermal signatures related to EAF operating conditions that affect the burner block temperature. Fiber-optics sensors based on Rayleigh backscattering were installed inside the burner block to collect temperature data during EAF operation. The fiber optic sensors are able to monitor distributed temperature across the burner during different operation modes and can also detect local hot spots precisely.