With the wide using of transparent alumina ceramics and synthetic sapphire, the demand of the furnace for them is promoted steadily, and the furnace lining materials are upgrading. Having low thermal conductivity and the same composition with transparent alumina ceramics and sapphire, porous alumina ceramics with. high purity are expected to lower the high energy consumption without contamination, in this paper, porous alumina ceramics with porosity of 75.3% -81.9% and impurity less than 0. 1% were prepared by a foaming method combined with gelcasting, using high purity alumina powders as raw materials. By changing the amount of foaming agent and the solid content, the microstructure and properties of porous ceramics were tailored. The compressive strength of the porous ceramics ranged .front （ 22.4 ±2.5） MPa to （48. 1± 3. 1 ） MPa, the thermal conductivity of porous ceramics at 1 000℃ ranged between 0. 41 -0. 65 W · （ m · K）^-1.
WANG GangYUAN BoWU HaiboDONG BinbinHAN JianshenCHEN KuoLI Hongxia
The specimens were prepared with high alumina fiber accounting for 0. 5% , 10% or 15% by mass of the total amount of amorphous silica and high alumina fiber, using phenolic resin as binder, and extra-adding 0 or 0. 5% ZnO as sunscreen to cut the cost of SiO2 nanoporous insulation board. The hot volume stability and thermal conductivity （flat plate method ） of the specimens were tested and multi-Jimetion simulation equipment was used to study the thermal insulation performante. The results show that： （1） with high alumina fiber addition increasing, the linear shrinkage rate decreases, but thermal eonductivity changes a little; （2） adding ZnO can decrease thermal conductivity obviously; （3）for the specimen with ZnO and 15% of high alumina fiber, its cold face temperature hardly rises during the simulation experiment at 1 000 ℃ for 2 h, and the cold face temperature of the specimen with the smallest thickness of 2 cm doesn＇t exceed 180 ℃.
Significant energy saving effects can be made through the improvement of furnace refractories,especially the thermal insulation refractories. In this study,the preparation and the application of different alumina based porous ceramics were briefly introduced. Alumina based porous ceramics were prepared combined foaming method with gelcasting,sol- gel process or cement curing process. The influences of different preparation methods on the sintering shrinkage, porosity, phase composition, microstructure, compressive strength and thermal conductivity were discussed. Alumina based porous ceramics with relatively high strength and low thermal conductivity could be obtained through the above mentioned methods. Compared with the traditional lining materials,about 40% energy could be saved when they were used as the furnace wall.
