System and method for estimating both thickness and wear state of refractory material of a metallurgical furnace

A system for estimating both thickness and wear state of a refractory material of a metallurgical furnace, the system comprising at least:

• a shock wave generator configured to generate at least one shock wave propagating into the refractory material;
• a shock wave sensor configured to sense at least one reflected shock wave into the refractory material;
• a processor including a database of simulated frequency domain data named simulated spectra representing simulated shock waves reflected in simulated refractory materials of known state and thickness, each simulated spectrum being correlated with both known state and thickness data of the considered simulated refractory material, wherein the processor is configured:
• to record the reflected shock wave as a time domain signal, and to convert the time domain signal into frequency domain data so as to define experimental spectrum, and
• to compare the experimental spectrum with a plurality of simulated spectra from the database, to determine a best fitting simulated spectrum with the experimental spectrum and to estimate thickness and state of the refractory material of the furnace using known state and thickness data correlated with the best fitting simulated spectrum.