Assessment Of Mass Loss And Permeability Changes During The Dewatering Process Of Refractory Castables Containing Polypropylene Fibres

This work describes the use of a new permeability technique to evaluate microstructural changes that take place in castables with high alumina-fibre content during the dewatering process. It is shown that the mass loss due to cement dehydration and the permeability increase caused by fibre burnout can be independently assessed, based on the fluid dynamic conditions established for the experiment. Control of the pressure drop thorough the sample was the key procedure used to analyse the phenomenon of interest.