Thermal conductivity of a kaolinite refractory: effect of a plant-derived organic binder

Abstract

The effect of corchorus olitorius derived binder on the effective thermal conductivity of a kaolinite-based refractory was investigated. Strong dependence of (effective) thermal conductivity of fired samples on the binder concentration, temperature and porosity was noted. Comparison of experimental data with Effective Medium Approximation (EMA) and Geometric Mean Model (GMM) theories showed that predictions from EMA agreed better with the experimental data than those from GMM. This was attributed to the EMA model being more rigorous and contained more microstructural information than the simpler GMM.