Postmortem study in glass-melting furnaces is an important way to determine the factors related to refractory corrosion. Although these studies are not usually carried out in this type of furnace, important information is obtained that can be used to help choose appropriate refractory materials. Such a study was conducted in an indrustrial glass-melting furnace at Santa Marina (Saint Gobain Group) Sao Vicente plant in Brazil. This furnace operated part of its campaign with air-oil combustion system and part with oxygen-oil combustion system. Silica bricks installed in the crown and in the right and left walls of the furnace were analyzed after the campaign. XRD, XRF, SEM, EDP and mercury porosimetry were used to analyze the chemical and physical characteristics of the refractory samples. Corrosion mechanisms are proposed for the silica refractory.
