FM-CW radar design and development for on-site refractory wall thickness measurement

Refractory materials used in glass melting furnaces are etched away over time by molten glass. This etching can become so severe that the refractory materials must be replaced. The precise knowledge of the amount and location of this wear is important for both safety and cost efficiency. A study was conducted using a wideband frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) radar system to measure the thickness of these refractory materials from outside the furnace. This radar system requires simple microwave components and can be designed to be portable, allowing measurements to be collected at several locations throughout a furnace and processed in real time. The frequency spectrum of the output signal from the radar contains range information about boundaries within the furnace wall. This investigation describes the experimental and theoretical results of this radar system under many measurement conditions, and well as a limited dielectric property measurement for several refractory materials --Abstract, page iii