The exact knowledge of the material properties of refractories in the region of their, usual very high, application temperatures is the key to their successful application as well as to the development of new refractory materials. A particularly important question is the behaviour of a refractory against thermal shock and thermal cycling. While many techniques and standards deal with changes between high temperature and room temperature, the more realistic load is often the fast change between two high temperatures. In this work, we explain the capabilities of a new ThermoOptical measuring device called TOM_wave, which was developed for hot thermal shock and thermal cycling tests and determination of further high temperature properties of refractories.
