This article investigates the thermal and deformational behavior in a copper steel composite stave for blast furnace process and analyzes the effects of copper layer thickness and reinforcing rib thickness on temperature, deformation and copper steel interface thermal stress of copper steel composite stave. The model is validated by stave thermocouple data. The peak temperature of rib and brick hot-face are 177 degrees C and 966 degrees C, respectively. Copper steel composite stave deforms into the typical parabolic arc due to the expansion of the stave hot-face which is constrained by cool-face and furnace shell. A peak copper steel interface stress, about 114 MPa, is found near the top or bottom border of the interface. Increasing reinforcing rib thickness and decreasing copper layer thickness are available in decreasing the thermal deformation and copper steel interface stress of copper steel composite stave. The reinforcing rib thickness is found to be the most important for the stave thermal deformation behavior. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd.