Electric Arc Furnace Drainage Valve

Electric arc furnaces (EAF) are commonly used to melt and purify steel. This valve was designed as a water drainage connection between the roof and sidewall of an EAF. As opposed to using pressurized water, this specific type of EAF sprays water onto the outside of the roof and sidewall to cool those surfaces of the furnace and prevent them from overheating due to the molten steel below. While this is a safer design, it adds the requirements of collection and subsequent drainage of that water.

The water drainage connection between the roof and sidewall was necessary due to the fact that the EAF roof had to be disconnected from the sidewall to allow steel to be loaded into the furnace. Current EAF roof designs accommodate this restriction with venturi pumps, which was undesirable due to the inefficiency of these pumps. An alternative drainage design was to use gravity to directly drain the water from the roof into the sidewall. While this eliminated the use of venturi pumps, it required the addition of a detachable drainage system.

Shown below is one of the design options that would allow for the drainage requirements of the EAF. The three drawings show the operation of the valve. The functionality is similar to that of a quick connect air hose coupling. When the upper and lower halves are connected, as shown on the rightmost drawing, water is allowed to drain from the roof into the sidewall.