LAUSR

Abstract The system for preventive maintenance of rotary kilns in cement plants is established with the aim of ensuring permanent deformability control of their components; particularly, the ferrule ovalization, the kiln axis eccentricity, the roll wear and the rollers misalignment. As a preventative measure for refractory bricks not to fall, there must be an inspection every five months in order to keep the structure in good condition. The measurement results exploitation provides guidance for the decision to be taken. For example, it helps determine the production stop to replace or rectify the shell, rollers or bandage, or other damaged sections. The article at hand aims to review the history and technology of cement plants, the main experimental methods used for the shell ovalization measurement and the kiln offset. In addition, the article tackles the thermo-elastic ferrule's behavior modeling. However, both an analytic formulates and a finite element model were proposed in order to determine the cold and hot kiln deformability. A comparative study of the experimental results and those obtained by the analytic and numerical simulations were carried out using a CAD software. This analysis was successfully applied to the three identical critical zones of the rotary kiln in the cement plants and the results of comparative study are in very good agreement.