Blowpipe antenna in blast furnace raceway depth measurement

Abstract

A high gain blowpipe antenna has been presented in this paper. The blowpipe is a pipe used to blow hot air into the Blast Furnace (BF). It has formed the antenna as the radiation unit. A multi-stages cylindrical waveguide has been designed and employed to be the feeding unit. The two units of antenna are separated outside and inside the BF. They are easy to assemble during the BF production process. The antenna operates from 24 to 26 GHz. The simulation result shows that the blowpipe antenna has 25 dBi gain, 20 dB return loss and 30° HPBW (Half Power Beam Width) at the frequency of 25 GHz. Prototype antenna has been fabricated and measured the raceway depth in a real BF. The experiment result shows that the blowpipe antenna can be used in raceway depth measurement. It has advantages of high gain and easy-to-assemble.