US2200377A - Coking retort oven - Google Patents

Description

May-14, J. VAN ACKEREN' 2.200.377

COKiNG RETOR'I' OVEN Filed Oct. 17. 1938 s Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR. V0 Kill.

ATTORNEY.

May 14, 1940.

6 Sheath-Sheet 2 l in N a. h M Wm m \N 1 .5? I al Q Q in n: n 3 kW & ml h n INVENTOR. mm v40 Jenna.

ATTORNEY.

y 1940- J. VAN ACKEREN COMING RETORI OVEN 6 Sheets-Sheet 5' r 9 s w d M p v 1 w A 1 1 1 1 1 1/ 1 1 1131K; 14111 1 1 17 11 11 1 4 441 1.1 oododeoo mooooooooof oooooookaooooooooor INVENTOR.

ATTORNEY.

y 1 19401 J.- VAN ACKEREN COKING RETORT OVEN -Filed Oct. 1?, 1958 1 1 f 1 I1 I 0000300007 060 oooomxooooobaov mvoo 1 1 1 1 11 1 1 1 I ll 11 /11 1111/ I! ooo oo 6000 2000050ooowmodo 000007 1 11 1// 1 1 11/1 1 1 1 11 1 fin 1 1 11 11/ 11 1 1/11/ 111 1 1 11 1 //11 11 1 1 1/ 1 111 fl 1 1 1 1 1/ 111 1 11 1 1/ 1 1 1 11 1 1 11 11 1 11/ 1 1 1 1 1 1 I I 1 1 0000 000 00 00.09%1000000000740000000 0% 1 1 1 1 m1%1 1 1%1,111 3141 1 21 1 1 0000000? 000000 0 400020 0002000020000? 0000 002 000 o oowr floooodoooouooooooooq 1 1 1 1 I f 00OOO0O 0OOO0OO A a N OOO0OO00 00000 000 6 Sheets-Sheet 6 INVENTOR. wm' Acme ken JGSEPH J. VAN ACKEREN 001mm RE'IORT OVEN Filed Oct. 17, 1938 May 14, 1940.

ZUL. we

Patented May 14, 1940 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE COKING RETORT OVEN Application October 17, 1938, Serial No. 235,357

9 Claims.

The present invention relates to regenerative by-product coke ovens of the class having horizontally elongated coking chambers separated by flued heating walls that are supported above a supporting mat for thestructure by means of heavy pillar walls that extend lengthwise of the coking chambers and crosswise of a battery thereof in substantial parallelism with the heating walls and wherein the inter-pillar wall spaces are utilized as regenerators for preheating underfiring media and for recovering heat from their products of combustion, and the instant in-- vention is more particularly concerned with socalled combination ovens, in which the heating of the heating walls can be optionally effected either by the combustion of gas of high thermal content that does not require regenerative preheating or by means of a regeneratively preheated extraneously produced fuel gas of relatively low heating value, such as blast-furnace or producer gas. The novel features of the present invention are directed to improve the type of ovens of the aforesaid kind, which type involves as a constructional feature endwise abutting interior groups and exterior groups of sideby-side regenerators for alternately preheating fuel gas and recovering heat from its combustionproducts from corresponding flue groups in the respective heating walls, each of the abutting regenerators being furnished with individual sole-channels that extend side-by-side from beneath the checker brick of their associated regenerators and between adjacent pillar walls to the same face of a battery of such ovens at which place they connect individually with flow boxes which alternately alter the direction of gaseous flow in the said sole-channels and the communicating regenerators.

Coke-ovens embodying the above-described features of construction and operation are exemplified in the patent to C. Berthelot, U. S. No. 1,340,104, granted May 11, 1920, and in patents to Joseph Becker, U. S. Nos. 1,764,496 and 1,764,497, both dated June 17, 1930, and also in my prior patent U. S. No. 1,961,265. In each of these interior sole-channels extended through an adjacent endwise abutting exterior regenerator compartment wherein it lies directly adjacent to the sole-channel therefor, and in the operation of which the one of two said abutting regeneratorcompartments, and its associated sole-channel, is filled with fuel gas undergoing preheating at one pressure while the other is carrying combustion-products at a lower pressure.

Coke ovens of this general type present problems of construction for which a completely satisfactory solution has not been previously advanced. The design and operation of their regenerator and sole-channel systems are such that the inter-pillar wall spaces are required to be 5 spanned by vertical and horizontal refractory walls that in the heated structure must be absolutely free of all openings through which fuel gases can short-circuit from channels therefor into combustion-products channels, a circum- 10 stance that can easily arise in consequence of the differences in pressures under which these gases exist in their respective flow-paths, if the confining walls are not entirely impervious to gaseous fiow therethrough. Fuel gas that leaks into the combustion-products channels is burned with the residual oxygen of the latter and its heat is thus substantially lost by elevating the temperatures at which the combustion-products are discharged from the structure and, in addition, local combustion at the points of crossleakage can cause local fluxing of the brickwork, thus engendering conditions that will become accumulatively aggravated with continued operation of the structure and ultimately lead to serig5 ous damage of the regenerative system and to unsatisfactory efficiency of operation.

During their construction some device must be provided to accommodate the expansion undergone by these cross-walls when the finished structure is heated up to operating temperatures else the masonry comprising them will be shattered or dislodged from its designed position by the resistance of the pillar walls to their expansion. In the prior art this device has gen- 5 terials employed in construction can give rise to small amounts of expansion over or under that calculated for, with the result that cracks and fissures left or produced along said regenerator-spanning walls may cause incipient and thereafter increasingly serious short-circuiting Hence the expansion- 5 of gases to take place between fuel gas and combustion-product regenerators. It has been proposed to incorporate in the walls, separating the edit-channels of the inflow from those of the outflow regenerators, impervious metallic heat resisting plates or their equivalents for preventing gas leakage from one to the other through unclosed or damaged expansion-joints and cracks that develop in the adjacent brickwork. Such an expediency is expensive and is unnecessary in structures embodying the herein-disclosed novel improvement. It has been also proposed to lay an impervious pipe inside the walls of said sole-channels so as to reduce the chances of leakage of gases therefrom into said other regenerative spaces through imperfections in the walls of the extended sole-charmel, but this has the diflficulty of securing properly resistant metals from which to form the said pipe and of perfecting a permanently gas-tight seal between the metal thereof and the masonry of the regenerator cross-wall that it penetrates.

The general object of the present invention is to provide such a novel and improved disposition of the expansion-joints required in horizontal coke-ovens of the above-described type that it is no longer necessary to provide during their erection expansion-joints in either the masonry walls that form the ends of endwise abutting regenerative spaces or in the walls that separate side-by-side extending sole-channels respectively operating simultaneously to carry gases to and from said spaces. In short, the principal object of the present invention is to furnish for a battery of horizontal, combination coke-ovens of the'type in question an improved and novel expansion-joint system such as will enable the coke-oven builder to construct and lay-up all those enclosing and separating walls employed for any regenerator-spaces and their sole-channels, that are associated with the heating fiues of any one entire heating wall, as continuous interlocked and well-mortared brickwork structure in there is no communication with the exterior save through the usual ports for the regenerator flow-boxes and the ducts that communicably connect regenerators and heating flues, and in which there is left no openings inside the chambers to be closed by said brickwork during its expansion incident to being brought to the temperature levels of coking operations, and will yet also adequately accommodate the growth of the brickwork of an entire battery of such ovens. The invention has for further objects such other improvements and such other operative advantages or results as may be found to obtain in the processes or apparatus hereinafter described or claimed.

According to the present invention all expansion-joints for the regenerators of a battery of ovens of the stated class are provided outside of the walls of the regenerative unit serving any one heating wall and between it and the walls of the similar regenerative unit for an adjacent heating wall, so that each such unit is a separately expansible entity. A related disposition of means for accommodating the expansion of the brickwork in the regenerative system of coke ovens is disclosed in my afore-mentioned prior patent U. S. No. 1,961,265, and in my patents U. S. Nos. 2,003,565 and 2,020,919, granted June 4, 1935, and November 12, 1935, respectively. In combination coke-oven structures of the type for which the present improvement is more especially provided. the pillar walls are underneath the heating walls, and the inter-pillar wall spaces are each divided into compartments not only by cross-walls that span said spaces perpendicularly of said pillar walls but also by at least one other so-called division-wall that is positioned in some instances directly beneath a coking chamber and extends parallel therewith from one end of said chamber to the other. This other so-called division-wall, in combination with said cross-walls, divides each inter-pillar wall space into at least two side-by-side independent series of end-to-end regenerator-compartments. The series on one side of such so-called division-wall being connected by ducts with the heating fiues of one heating wall whereas the series on the opposite side of the said so-called division-wall communicates by duets with the heating fiues of an adjacent heating wall. In such a coke-oven battery, on opposite sides of each pillar-wall under the heating wall, there is a sequence in which adjacent end-to-end abutting regeneratorcompartments are operable in alternation with each other to flow heating media to and exhaust combustion products from correspondingly grouped heating flues of the heating wall positioned directly above said pillar-wall. Thus there are compartments which function as inflow regenerators at the same time abutting regenerator-compartments operate as outflow regenerators, and each said sequence of regenerator-compartments is separated from that sequence operatively connected with an adjacent heating wall by the above-mentioned gas-tight so-called division-wall of which one is located beneath each coking chamber of the battery between adjacent pillar walls.

These division-walls have been constituted in the prior art of solid brickwork that rises vertically from the oven-supporting mat up to the point where they are incorporated in that masonry of the structure immediately below the soles of the above-lying ovens. The present invention departs from the prior art in that all expansion-joints for the regenerative system of the battery are provided in the above-mentioned so-called regenerator division-walls, all said joints being vertically disposed therein and uninterruptedly extended therealong transversely of the battery from one end of each said division-wall t0 the other. The said joints each preferably reach vertically from the oven mat upwards to the junction of said walls with those horizontal tiers of brickwork that lie beneath the oven-soles and below the bottoms of the heating flues, where the said expansion joints then branch laterally in a generally diagonal direction in alternate horizontal slip-joints and vertical expansion joints, and end beneath the bottom tier of liner bricks which form the walls of the carbonization chambers without intersecting those ducts that connect said regenerators with the heating fiues of the heating walls. Each of these division-walls should preferably be formed of at least two courses of bricks laid during their erection with sufficient interspace therebetween to take up the overall horizontal expansion of all regenerator masonry between the center-lines of adjacent pillar walls, and the diagonally branching sections of said expansion-joints, in the tiers of brickwork between the tops of the regenerators and the bottoms of the heating flues and coking chambers, should be preferably provided with adequate width to accommodate the total expansion of all the brickwork of said tiers between oven or heating-flue centers. With expansionjoints in the regenerative system so provided, each pillar wall and the brickwork of the walls of the regenerator-compartments adjacent opposite sidesdhereof become, during the heating-up process, individually expanding units that will freely expand laterally outward from a neutral axis at the center of the pillar walls and into the voids of the expansion-joints of the regenerator division-walls and, in consequence, the expansionjoints of the prior art that intersected either the horizontal or vertical walls, or both, in any such group of regenerators serving one heating wall, are made superfluous and the walls of these regenerator units now can be all formed of continuous gas-tight construction, thereby eliminating all danger of cross-leakage between abutting regenerator or adjacent sole-channels through which gases are flowed under different conditions of pressure.

The present invention is adapted for employment not only in a battery of ovens in which heating gas of high thermal content is introduced into the lower part of the heating flues from conduits that extend horizontally in the capitals of the regenerator pillar walls but also in such batteries as employ the so-called underjet system for flowing rich gases into the heating fiues. Underjet oven batteries have accessible passageways beneath that structural supporting-mat that is immediately below the regenerator sole-conduits and from them individual ducts rise vertically through the said pillar walls to each heating line from a distribution system for the rich gas that is located in said accessible passageways. In the battery of the present invention wherein all expansion-joints for the regenerators are placed in the regenerator division-walls and wherein also the lengthwise vertical median plane of the pillar walls are the neutral axes from which the brickwork of the regenerator walls expand laterally, it is obvious that the improved structure of invention will, during its expansion, in no wise deform or warp or critically alter the free-way through rich-gas ducts provided in pillar walls during their construction period.

The significance and advantages provided by the present improvement will be more clearly understood by reference to the accompanying drawings in which the invention is shown in combination with a combination coke-oven battery that is adapted for rich-gas underfiring by means of horizontally extending ducts in the capitols of the pillar walls thereof and also with a combination coke-oven battery adapted for rich-gas underfiring according to the underjet principle, although it will be understood that the advantages of the features of invention are not restricted solely to those ovens characterized by the specific features hereinabove described.

In the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification and showing for purposes of exemplification a preferred apparatus and method in which the invention may be embodied and practised but without limiting the claimed invention specifically to such illustrative instance or instances:

Figure 1 is a vertical section taken transversely through the heating wall of a coke-oven battery embodying the present improvement, a part of said wall being broken away to show the adjacent coking chamber; said section being taken substantially on line 1-1 of Figure 3;

Fig. 2 is a vertical section taken through a heating wall of a coke-oven battery having the same characterizing features as the battery shown in Fig. 1 and in addition added features adapting it for underfiring according to the underjet principle, said section being taken substantially along the line II-II of Fig. 4;

Fig. 3 is a composite vertical section of the coke-oven battery illustrated in Fig. l, the section portions of the figure being taken on vertical planes longitudinally of the battery as indicated by the lines A-A, BB and -0 of said Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a composite vertical section similar to that shown in Fig. 3 but taken along the lines D-D and E-E of Fig. 2; and

Figs. and 6 are horizontal sections taken in planes indicated by the lines V-V and VIVI of Figs. 3 and 4 respectively.

The same characters of reference indicate the same parts in each of the several views of the drawings.

Referring to the drawings, there are illustrated views of two combination coke-oven batteries, which embody in their construction a plurality of crosswise elongated coking chambers ill separated by fiued heating Walls ll each of which is separated into a plurality of vertically disposed heating flues l2 from one face of the battery to the other. At their upper ends each heating flue communicably connects with one of the two horizontal lines [3 which extend from one face of the battery to substantially a point on the longitudinal median thereof where they are in end-toend contact. Thus, the total number of heating flues in each heating wall is divided into two separate principal groups for gas-flow purposes by the wall l4 that divides the horizontal flue l3 into two sections of substantially equal length. In a preferred method of operation the heating fines of, each such principal flue-group are operatively further subdivided into an exterior and an interior group of fiues, respectively designated by the letters J and K, by means of a disposition of the rich-gas conduits and of the regenerators and their sole-channels and of the reversing devices such that the direction of gaseous flow in a J -group of fines is, at any one time, always the opposite of that in a K-group, and a J-group of flues and an adjacent K-group thereof are operative in alternation with each other as flameflues and combustion-product exhaust flues, although it is obvious that by a simple change of the connections between the flow reversing mechanism and those devices for changing the direction of gaseous flow through the heating walls, the construction of the illustrated structure is such as Will permit both a J -group of fiues and. a K-group, not communicably connected therewith, to be operated simultaneously as flamefiues or combination-product exhaust flues. In short, it is possible to operate the illustrated structures in such manner that in any heating wall a pair of exterior or a pair of interior heating-flue groups or an exterior and an interior group are simultan aously serving the same function in the regenerative heating cycle.

Beneath each heating wall H and supporting the brickwork thereof is a gas-tight pillar wall l5 that extends from one side of the battery to the other and the inter-pillar wall spaces are arranged as the regenerators for the regenerative heating system. Each of. the inter-pillar wall spaces is divided lengthwise by the gas-tight division-wall (6 into two parts. Each part is further divided by three gas-tight walls II that extend crosswise of the said inter-pillar space and in substantial parallelism with the lengthwise dimension of the battery, thereby forming between each pillar wall and its adjacent divisionwall IS a series of four end-to-end regeneratorcompartments of which two are exterior compartments l8 and two are interior compartments 19, each being in length about one-fourth that of a heating wall. Each such regenerator-compartment is furnished with an individual sole-channel, the exterior compartments having the upper and shorter sole-channels whereas the interior regenerator-compartments have the lower and longer sole-channels 2| that, through a part of their lengths are directly beneath the said exterior compartments l3 and in lateral contact with the sole-channels 20 serving them. Solechannels 20 extend from one face of the oven battery into about one-fourth of its crosswise dimension to terminate at an outer edge of the gas-tight cross-walls H, whereas sole-channels 2| that serve the interior regenerator-compartments extend uninterruptedly from the battery face to that cross-wall I! which lies substantially on the lengthwise median of the battery. No communication is provided between the exterior regenerators l8 and sole-channels 2| and it is highly desirable that this lack of communication be maintained at all times. It is obvious that sole-channels 2| penetrate the outer edge of the cross-walls l1 and one of the constructional problems in ovens of this general type is the provision of a structure wherein it can be assured that the contacts between the outer of. the said walls ll and the walls of the sole-channel 2| are of such nature as will preclude all possibility of gases flowing therethrough and for reasons hereinafter explained. The cross-walls I! on the lengthwise median of the batteries of Figs. 1 and 2 may be of lighter construction than the outer cross-walls l1 and, if preferred, they may be omitted from structures embodying the preferred mode of operation of the species here disclosed since, in such event, those regenerator-compartments adjacent the opposite sides of said median cross-wall will always be filled with the same gases under the same conditions of pressure and have the same direction of flow.

According to the invention, the cross-walls I! are constituted of solid brickwork without any expansion-joints and are tied in gas-tight contact at one end to the masonry of the adjacent pillar-wall l5 and at their other end to the brickwork comprising the adjacent section of divisionwall It. Since in the battery of invention, the masonry comprising each pillar wall and divisionwall section and cross-wall is entirely without expanion-joints, which would have to be closed by the expansion of said walls, when brought to op erating temperatures during the heating-up of the structure, all uncertainty or doubt that all of the said walls that form the different regenerative-compartments will be impervious to gas-flow therethrough is entirely removed.

The regenerator-compartments are each communicably connected with each flue of the corresponding heating-flue groups J or K immediately thereabove by individual ducts 22, and during operation the flow of heating media is as follows. During one period of the regenerative heating cycle, gases introducedinto upper solechannels 20, at either face of the battery, flow therealong and are distributed over the checker bricks in the associated exterior regeneratorcompartments l8, by appropriate openings in the tops of said sole-channels, and thereafter enter the heating flues of the flue groups J through 1 ducts 22 and flow upward in amounts regulated to the flues individually by sliding-bricks 23 located in the horizontal fiues 13. Having traversed heating flues J, the gases enter horizontal flue I 3 on one side of the wall I 4 and flow into the tops of the heating fines of a K group, thence downwardly into a regenerator-compartment l9 to the face of the battery through the associated lower sole-channel 2 I. During the next period of the regenerative heating cycle, the inflow regenerators and upflow flues become the outflow regenerators and downfiow heating flues. Although in the preferred method of operating the illustrated batteries, the direction of gaseous flow in the K-groups of heating fines is the same during any one period of the heating cycle and in a direction opposite that in the J -groups, it is also possible by suitable arrangement of the devices controlling the flow of fuel gas and combustionproducts to have the same direction of gaseous flow in alternate groups of heating flues (in one J- and one K-group) and in alternate regenerator-compartment of a series thereof, but in either instance a combustion-products regenerator will always be in end-to-end abutment with a compartment filled with fuel gas being preheated, whenever the structure is operated as a gasoven, i. e., whenever the battery is being heated with an extraneously produced lean gas, and in consequence of the gaseous pressure differential across the regenerator cross-wall II that separates the two, leakage of fuel gas from the former into the latter is possible if the intervening cross- ,wall is not impervious to gas-flow therethrough.

As hereinbefore mentioned and indicated in the accompanying illustrations, the heating walls of the illustrated combination coke-oven batteries can be underflred with heating gas that is not regeneratively preheated and is introduced into the lower part of the heating fiues either from horizontally extending conduits 24, 25, in the tops of the pillar walls l5, as shown in the structure of Figs. 1 and 3 or is introduced according to the underjet principle by ducts 26 that extend vertically through said pillar walls and communicate at their lower ends with a fuel gas distribution system located in accessible passageways 21 beneath the battery-supporting mat 28 and as shown in Figs. 2 and 4.

Conduits 24 and 25, of Figs. 1 and 3, are employed to convey fuel gas, that is not regeneratively preheated, respectively to the J -groups and K-groups of heating fines and said conduits are communicably connected to the rich gas mains 29 with fittings adapted to permit a suitable mechanism to introduce heating gas into them in alternation from said main 29. For example, while conduits 24 are receiving a supply of gas from main 29, conduits 25 are shut off from such main, and vice versa, in accordance with the reversal in direction of flow through the groups of heating flues, as already explained. The conduits 24, 25, in the same pillar wall, are preferably arranged horizontally in respect of each other instead of being superimposed so as to reduce the oppor-- tunity for gases to flow from one to the other in the event fissures should develop in the intermediate brickwork.

As shown in the embodiment of Figs. 2 and 4, the rich-gas main of the underjet underflred battery is located in the passageways 2T beneath the mat 28 and communicates with ducts 26, that extend vertically from the bottoms to the tops of the pillar walls and into the lower parts of the heating flues, by two headers 3i, 32, which respectively convey gas to the J- and K-groups of heating flues. The branched pipe 33 that conveys gas from main 30 to said headers is provided with connections and fittings whereby rich fuelegas can be admitted into said headers 3|, 32, alternately accordingly as the exterior or the interior groups of flues are operating as the flame flues. When the batteries shown in Figs. 1 to 4 are underfired with fuel gas that does not require regenerative pre-heating, one-half of all the regenerators of the battery are filled with air undergoing preheating and the other half are operating to absorb heat from combustion-products at any one time, and no fuel gas is introduced into any of the sole-channels.

At such times as it is desired to operate the structures illustrated in the figures as gasovens, communication between conduits 24, 25, and main 29 of Figs. 1 and 3, or between headers 3|, 32, and main 3|] of Figs. 2 and 4, is disestablished and lean gas such as blast-furnace or producer-gas is introduced in alternation into some of the sole-channels 20, 2|, of both the illustrated structures, from the lean gas mains 34 of Figs. 1 and 3 or those lean gas mains 35, in Figs. 2 and 4, that are preferably located in the passageways 21 of the structure that is underfired according to the underjet method, by suitable connections and fittings for the purpose. Whether or not the illustrated structures are heated with rich gas or lean gas, the flow-paths of the heating gases remain the same; that is, the exterior groups of regenerator-compartments l8 and the communicably connected exterior J-groups of heating flues of any one heating wall are operated simulta-- neously respectively as inflow regenerators and upflow or flame flues while the interior groups of regenerator-compartments l9 and the interior K-groups of heating flues are the downflow flues and outflow regenerators respectively, and vice versa. As is clearly shown in the drawings, the

11 flues of each heating wall each communicate individually by means of ducts 22 with those regenerator-compartments that are located adjacent opposite sides of that pillar wall I5, that is directly beneath said heating wall, and between adjacent division walls Hi. When the batteries are heated with regeneratively preheated lean gas. during one reversal period of the regenerative heating cycle the one of the two regenerator-compartments that communicates by said ducts 22 with a corresponding group of heating flues of a heating wall is employed to preheat lean gas at the same time the other is preheating air, whereas during the other reversal period the same two regenerators are adapted to flow combustion-products to a waste-gas flue 36, from the same flue group, into which they have been flowed from an abutting flue-group of the same heating wall; this means that at some time during any one heating cycle one-half of all the regenerator-compartments that communicate with one heating wall are employed for preheating lean gas and the other half for preheating air.

All those regenerator-compartments wherein fuel gas is preheated are disposed adjacently the one side of a pillar wall and all those for preheating air are arranged adjacently the opposite side thereof so that not only are these gas and air regenerators but also their communicating solechannels respectively separated from each other by the relatively thick masonry barrier of the pillar wall. In addition, the fuel gas regenerators for any one heating wall as well as those for an adjacent heating wall are all arranged between two adjacent pillar walls; the same obtains for the air regenerators. As a result, at both battery faces, all sole-channels associated with alternate groups of those side-by-side and endto-end regenerators positioned between adjacent pillar walls are arranged by suitable fittings and connections, designated generally by the reference numeral 31, to have the pair of upper and pair of lower sole-channels communicably connected in alternation with the lean fuel-gas mains and the waste-heat stack 36 whereas the sole-channels of the similar intermediate groups of side-by-side and end-to-end regenerators are similarly arranged for communication in alternation with the waste-heat stack and a source of air. The means for connecting said alternate groups of regenerator sole-channels with the source of lean fuel gas and with the wasteheat stack must also be adapted to supply air to said pairs of conduits when the battery is heated with rich gas that is not regeneratively preheated.

In Figs. 2 and 4, the gases present in the regenerators and their sole-channels during the on-period of a regenerative lean-gas heating cycle are shown by the solid letters A, G, and WG which denote air, gas and waste-gas respectively whereas the same characters in dotted lines indicate those gases present in said regenerators and sole-channels during the next period of reverse flow.

Reference to Figs. 2, 4, 5, and 6, shows clearly the preferred disposition of the expansion-joints of the present invention for coke-oven batteries having the stated features of construction. According to the present improvement, the expansion-joints 38 for the regenerator system are placed in the division-walls I3 that are beneath each choking chamber where they divide said entire regenerator system into a series of individually expansible units each comprising all regenerator-compartments that serve one flued heating wall with which said joint is substantially co-extensive transversely of the battery, and the side walls of which unit are formed by those sections of the division-walls on opposite sides of the included pillar wall 15 and between adjacent expansion-joints. The portion 38 of each expansion-joint extends substantially from the bottom of the battery vertically to a point preferably somewhat above the top of the adjacent regenerator-compartments where it branches diagonally into sections 39 in those horizontal tiers of masonry, between the oven soles and the tops of the regenerators, said joint-sections 33 being constituted of alternate horizontal slipjoints and vertical expansion-joints that are terminated beneath the brickwork of the heating walls. It will be noted that the sections 39 of the expansion-joints of invention are so disposed that they do not intersect either the ducts that communicably connect the regenerators and the heating flues or the horizontal or vertical conduits for flowing non-regeneratively preheated rich gas into the heating flues and that the portions 38 thereof are likewise relatively remote from the walls of the sole-channels 20, 2|, alternately employed for flowing lean gas and air to regenerator-compartments and combustion-products therefrom.

In short, by means of this improved arrangement of the expansion-joints, the masonry of all the walls of those regenerator-compartments and the ducts and conduits employed for flowing fuel gases to the heating flues of any one heating wall are formed into a single unit that can expand freely and without interference from all such adjacent units of a battery comprising them, with the result that it is no longer necessary to make provisions for expansion in any of the walls that separate the different channels of gaseous flow or to make expansive provisions to obviate possible short-circuiting of gases through joints that may or may not be satisfactorily closed during the heating-up of the battery.

It should be noted especially that the horizontal walls 40 between the upper and lower solechannels, that alternately carry lean fuel gas and combustion-products to and from some of the regenerator-compartments, along with the vertical walls 41 that form their side walls, are all made of continuous, interlocked and mortared brickwork, and also that the junction of said horizontal walls 40 with the cross-walls I1 is also of a gas-tight construction without special means to accommodate expansion, and the sole-channels 2| are each consequently surrounded with impervious walls throughout their entire length and their horizontally extending sections can freely expand into the expansion joints 38 provided by the present improvement. It is preferred to form all parts of the walls of the regenerative system entirely of silica brickwork including also the bottoms of the solechannels so that the problems created by cmploying materials of dissimilar expansion characteristics are obviated. It is further preferred to place loosely inside the silica walls of said solechannels the conduits 42 made of joined lengths of hollow tile formed from fire-brick material, or the equivalent, which is more resistant to the temperature fluctuations obtaining at this point in a battery, and consequently acts as a buffer to prevent that rapid change of thermal conditions in the adjacent silica walls which tends to open joints and cracks in that zone. By forming these heat-buffering conduit-pipes 42 from tilelike members which have been previously molded and fired in substantially the shape shown in Figures 3 and 4, there are provided numerous advantages. A better economy of the space available in the sole-channels for gas-flow purposes is realized than in those instances where such heat-insulating conduits are built up from small flat shapes which in order to give satisfactory stability must be of greater thickness than the self supporting walls of the said tiles. They are also more economical to install, more nearly permanent, and in the event it becomes necessary to inspect or repair the silica brickwork behind them, they are more easily removed and replaced.

Expansion-joints 43 are also provided in the top of the battery to allow for the longitudinal expansion of the horizontal tiers of brick above the tops of the heating walls and the coking chamber, in the manner long established in the prior art.

The invention as hereinabove set forth is embodied in particular form and manner but may be variously embodied within the scope of the claims hereinafter made.

I claim:

1. In a combination coke-oven battery, in combination: a plurality of self-contained heating units each forming one half of each of two coking chambers laterally disposed on opposite sides of the unit and substantially co-extensive therewith, each unit comprising a vertically flued heating wall having its heating fiues divided into interior groups and exterior groups of heating fiues with an interior and an exterior flue-group operable in alternation with each other as flame flues and combustion-product exhaust flues, and

communicably connected with each other at their upper parts for flow of the combustion products to and from each other in alternation; each unit comprising beneath said heating wall, exterior and interior pairs of side-by-side regenerators individual to the interior and exterior flue groups with the interior and exterior pairs in endwise abutment with each other, each sideby-side regenerator of a pair being connected by ducts with its corresponding group of heating fiues in the heating wall above and by a separate solechannel with a battery face; oven-supporting walls extending crosswise of the battery and separating the regenerator pairs of the individual units from the regenerator pairs of adjacent individual units; other oven-supporting walls extending lengthwise of the battery and separating adjacent pairs of endwise abutting regenerators of the same unit from each other; the sole channels for regenerators operable in alternation with each other extending in juxtaposition to each other underneath the exterior regenerators to reach the battery face with horizontally extending walls therebetween for separating the solechannels of interior and exterior regenerators; a continuous construction for each heating unit free of all open joints for the walls of all regenerators and sole-channels communicably connected with the heating wall of the unit; and expansion joints between the regenerative systems of adjacent heating units, said expansion joints extending from face to face of the battery and from substantially the bottoms of the heating walls to the bottom of the battery, thereby providing for each heating wall an independent regenerative system having uninterrupted walls for all regenerators and ducts comprising it as well as means for accommodating their expansion when heated.

2. In a coke-oven battery, in combination: horizontally elongated coking chambers disposed in alternation with vertically flued heating walls each having its heating fiues communicably connected with each other into interior and exterior fiue groups so that an interior and exterior fluegroup are operable in alternation with each other as flame flues and combustion-product exhaust fines; and directly beneath each heating wall and coking chamber and in parallelism therewith, substantially co-extensive transverse oven-supporting walls that are intersected by other ovensupporting walls which extend longitudinally of the battery to form with the transverse walls exterior and interior pairs of side-by-side crossregenerators corresponding to the interior and exterior flue groups in endwise abutment, each side-by-side regenerator of such a pair thereof being connected by duets with its corresponding group of heating flues in the heating wall above and by a separate sole-channel with a battery face; the sole channels for regenerators operable in alternation with each other extending in juxtaposition to each other underneath the exterior regenerators to reach the battery face with horizontally extending walls therebetween for separating sole-channels of interior and exterior regenerators: there being a continuous construction free of all open joints for the walls of all regenerators and sole-channels communicably connected with one heating wall; and expansion joints in the oven-supporting walls directly be neath and in parallelism with the coking chambers, said expansion joints being substantially ooextensive with said walls from face to face of the battery and from the lower parts of the heating walls to the bottom of the battery While avoiding the intersecting of all ducts for flowing gases into and out of the heating flues.

3. In a combination coke-oven battery,in combination: horizontally elongated coking chambers disposed in alternation with vertically flued heating walls each having its heating flues communicably connected with each other into interior and exterior flue groups so that an interior and exterior flue-group are operable in alternation with each other as flame-flues and combustion-product exhaust flues: and directly beneath each heating wall and coking chamber and in parallelism therewith. substantially co-extensive transverse oven-supporting walls that are intersected by other oven-supporting walls which extend longitudinally of the battery to form with the transverse walls exterior and interior pairs of side-by-side cross-regenerators corresponding to the interior and exterior flue groups in endwise abutment, each sideby-side regenerator of such a pair thereof being connected by ducts with its corresponding group of heating flues in the heating wall above and by a separate solechannel with a battery face; in the upper parts of those oven-supporting walls that are parallel to and directly beneath heating walls, fuel-gas ducts arranged in substantially the same horizontal plane and disposed to flow fuel gas without regenerative preheating to interior and exterior flue groups in alternation with each other; the sole channels for regenerators operable in alternation with each other extending in juxtaposition to each other underneath the exterior regenerators to reach the battery face with horizontally extending walls therebetween for separating sole-channels of interior and exterior regenerators; there being a continuous construction free of all open joints for the walls of all regenerators and sole-channels communicably connected with one heating wall; and expansion joints in the oven-supporting walls directly beneath and in parallelism with the coking chambers, said expansion joints being substantially cc-extensive with said walls from face to face of the battery and from the lower parts of the heating walls to the bottom of the battery while avoid ng the intersecting of all ducts for flowing gases into and out of the heating flues.

4. In a combination coke-oven battery having accessible passageways beneath the regenerators, horizontally elongated coking chambers disposed in alternation with vertically fiued heating walls each having its heating flues communicably connected with each other into interior and exterior flue groups so that an interior and exterior fluegroup are operable in alternation with each other as flame flues and combustion-product exhaust lines: and directly beneath each heating wall and coking chamber and in parallelism therewith. substantially co-extensive transverse ovensupporting walls that are intersected by other oven-supportin walls which extend longitudinally of the battery to form with the transverse exterior and interior pairs of side-by-side crossregenerators corresponding to the interior and exterior flue roups in endwise abutment, each side-by-side regenerator of such a pair thereof being connected by ducts with its corresponding flue group of heating flues in the heating wall above and by a separate sole-channel with a battery face; vertically disposed ducts in those oven-supporting walls that are parallel of and directly beneath oven heating walls, said ducts porting in the lower part of heating flues which they communicably connect with a fuel gas distribution system located in said accessible passageways and arranged to flow fuel gas in alternation to exterior and interior flue groups of the respective heating walls; the sole channels for regenerator-s operable in alternation with each other extending in juxtaposition to each other underneath the exterior regenerators to reach the battery face with horizontally extending walls therebetween for separating sole-channels of interior and exterior regenerators; there being a continuous construction free of all open joints for the walls of all regenerators and sole-channels communicably connected with one heating wall; and expansion joints in the oven-supporting walls directly beneath and in parallelism with the coking chambers, said expansion joints being substantially co-extensive with said walls from face to face of the battery and from the lower parts of the heating walls to the bottom of the battery while avoiding the intersecting of all ducts for flowing gases into and out of the heating flues.

5. A coke-oven battery having horizontally elongated coking chambers arranged in alternation with flued heating walls each having its heating flues communicably connected with each other into flue groups adapted for concurrent operation as flame flues and combustion-product exhaust flues in alternation with each other, and beneath the coking chambers endwise-abutting exterior and interior cross-regenerators for the respective flue groups and each provided with an individual sole-channel communicably connecting it with a battery face, the sole-channels for interior regenerators extending to a battery face beneath exterior regenerators and in juxtaposition to the sole channels for the exterior regenerators, expansion accommodating means, said means being disposed between and without penetration of the enclosing walls of cross-regenerators and sole-channels associated with adjacent heating walls, so as to avoid short-circuiting of gases within the regenerative system for an individual heating wall or between the regenerative systems for a plurality thereof there being a continuous construction free of all open joints for the expansion of the walls of all regenerators and sole channels in communication with one and the same heating wall.

6. A coke-oven battery, having in combination: horizontally elongated coking chambers disposed in alternation with vertically flued heating walls each having its heating flues communicably connected with each other into interior and exterior flue groups so that an interior and an exterior flue-group are operable in alternation with each other as flame flues and combustion-product exhaust flues: and directly beneath each heating wall and coking chamber andin parallelism therewith. substantially co-extensive transverse oven-supporting walls that are intersected by other supporting walls which extend longitudinally of the battery to form with the transverse walls exterior and interior pairs of side-by-side cross-regenerators corresponding to the interior and exterior flue groups in endwise abutment, and having each side-by-side regenerator of a. pair connected by duets with its corresponding group of heating flues in the heating wall above and by a separate sole-channel with a battery face; and having the sole-channels for regenerators operable in alternation with each other extending in juxtaposition to each other underneath the exterior regenerators to reach the battery face and in which the regenerative systems of adjacent heating walls are separated from each other by an expansion joint extending substantially throughout the length and height of the regenerator chambers to the base of the coking chambers and heating walls, and in which the walls of the regenerator chambers, the ducts to the fines, and the sole channels. for the respective heating walls are formed of a single masonry unit of continuous interlocked mortared brickwork without expansion joints.

7. A coke-oven battery, having in combination: horizontally elongated coking chambers disposed in alternation with vertically fiued heating walls each having its heating flues communicably connected with eachother into interior and exterior flue groups so that an interior and an exterior flue-group are operable in alternation with each other as flame fines and combustionprocluct exhaust flues; and directly beneath each heating wall and coking chamber and in parallelism therewith, substantially co-extensive transverse oven-supporting walls that are intersected by other supporting walls which extend longitudinally of the battery to form with the transverse walls exterior and interior pairs of side-by-side cross-regenerators corresponding to the interior and exterior flue groups in endwise abutment, and having each side-by-side regenerator of a pair connected by ducts with its corresponding group of heating fiues in the heating wall above and by a separate sole-channel with a battery face; and having the sole-channels for regenerators operable in alternation with each other extending in juxtaposition to each other underneath the exterior regenerators to reach the battery face and in which the regenerative systems of adjacent heating walls are separated from each other, by an expansion joint extending substantially throughout the length and height of the regenerator chambers to the base of the coking chambers and heating walls, and in which the juxtaposed sole channels are arranged one above the other and in which their side walls and bottom and top walls are formed of continuous interlocked mortared brickwork interlocked gas tight without expansion joints with their aforesaid transversely extending and longitudinally extending oven supporting walls.

8. A coke-oven battery, having in combination: horizontally elongated coking chambers disposed in alternation with vertically fiued heating walls each having its heating flues communicably connected with each other into interior and exterior flue groups so that an interior and an exterior flue-group are operable in alternation with each other as flame flues and combustion-product exhaust fines; and directly beneath each heating wall and coking chamber and in parallelism therewith, substantially co-extensive transverse ovensupporting walls that are intersected by other supporting walls which extend longitudinally of the battery to form with the transverse walls exterior and interior pairs of side-by-side crossregenerators corresponding to the interior and exterior flue groups in endwise abutment, and having each side-by-side regenerator of a pair connected by duets with its corresponding group of heating flues in the heating wall above and by a separate sole-channel with a battery face, and having the sole-channels for regenerators operable in alternation with each other extending in juxtaposition to each other underneath the exterior regenerators to reach the battery face; and in which the regenerative systems of adjacent heating walls are separated from each other by an expansion joint extending substantially throughout the length and height of the re generator chambers to the base of the coking chambers and heating walls, and in which the juxtaposed sole channels are arranged one above the other, and in which their side walls and bot-. tom and top walls are formed of continuous interlocked mortared brickwork interlocked gas tight without expansion joints with their aforesaid transversely extending and longitudinally extending oven supporting walls; and in which thermal buffer conduits are loosely placed inside the sole channels, said conduits being constituted of jointed lengths of hollow tile of fire brick material of expansion characteristics dissimilar from the material of the sole fiues.

9. A coke-oven battery as claimed in claim 1 and in which the masonry of the walls of the regenerators and their sole-channels is formed exclusively of silica bricks.

JOSEPH VAN ACKEREN.

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