Environmental stresses and strains in an extreme situation: the repair of electrometallurgy furnaces.

Whenever continuous casting furnace breaks down, the emergency intervention necessary to repair it has to be carried out under exceptional environmental conditions caused mainly by heat, as the furnace must be stopped for the shortest possible time. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the stresses and strains to which boilermakers are subjected during the replacement of an electrode element of a 20 MW furnace. The thermal stress was evaluated by the wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) index.