Cooling installation for a blast furnace by means of stave coolers

A cooling installation for a blast furnace including, a plurality of stave coolers arranged in a plurality of successive superimposed rings along the internal wall of the blast furnace, to define a plurality of different horizontal levels of cooling staves, said plurality of successive superimposed rings of stave coolers corresponding to different levels in the blast furnace which are subjected, during normal operation of said blast furnace, to different amounts of heat;

• means for variably cooling, during normal operation of said blast furnace, said different levels in correspondance with, and to counteract, said different amounts of heat, the number of levels being variably cooled being greater than two;
• said cooling means including a plurality of relatively vertical internal circulation tubes for cooling fluid included in the stave coolers, the number of said tubes in the various said superimposed rings of stave coolers being different, with increased numbers of tubes being located in those rings subjected to relatively greater amounts of heat during normal operation;
• said increased number of tubes being provided by the fact that the widths of said stave coolers differ in the various said superimposed rings of stave coolers, with the relatively narrow stave coolers being arranged in the said levels subjected to the relatively higher amounts of heat;
• an external circuit means for cooling and maintaining the cooling fluid in a liquid state, including a plurality of supply lines and return lines, with the number of supply lines and return lines for various of said levels varying in accordance with the different numbers of said tubes.